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From the Editor

NDP leader Jack Layton and Moi

by Judi McLeod
Tuesday, May 10, 2005

Canadian New Democrat Party (NDP) leader Jack Layton once told the Toronto Star, "Judi and I go back a long way." Layton, then a Toronto City

Councillor, was lamenting the burr in his saddle.

as a journalist, I've always been on `Smilin' Jack's' case. The premier issue of my newspaper, Our Toronto carried a front page cartoon depicting Layton climbing into a chauffeur-driven city limousine with the bicycle he always used for photo ops strapped to the limo's back. The cartoon limo's license plate read: "Caviar Socialist No. 1".

Layton guessed he'd be in for a rough ride when Our Toronto (now Canada Free Press) landed on the municipal scene. He surmised correctly.

But it was back in my 1980 days as a Toronto Sun columnist when Smilin' Jack Layton first came on to my radar screen.

as a councillor, Layton's favourite cause was lobbying to have the City of Toronto declared a nuclear weapons-free zone. He was the inspiration behind "twinning" Toronto to the Soviet Union city of Volvograd, and was a big booster of the Vancouver-based COPE (Committee of Progressive Electors), then a low-key front for the Communist Party of Canada.

Why, couldn't Jack and fellow councillors just fix the potholes and take out the garbage as they were elected to, I pondered in one of my Sun columns.

Nothing was ever going to change Jack Layton from jumping into save-the-world mode as long as all those capitalists were conducting business on Bay Street.

More than anything else, it was Layton's "Peace Committee" that intrigued me. City grants, funneled through the Peace Committee, seemed to go only to groups with leftwing causes. Committee members once paid thousands to a group whose only mission was to paint peace symbols on the bottom of a community swimming pool.

With the help of the Sun's legendary Peter Worthington, an expose was written for the Sunday Sun. In the article, some of the more outlandish causes funded by the Peace Committee were exposed.

Layton called a meeting of brethren to dissect the article, and a Sun editor dispatched me to cover the meeting in one of City Hall's committee rooms.

The councillor, I thought, was bound to be miffed and this called for some trepidation on my part.

Cursing myself for having donned a bright red blouse before leaving home that day, I entered the meeting room, checking out the signed guest book before taking a seat at the back of the room.

The red blouse, I hoped would not attract any bulls named Jack.

Layton was holding forth on the disservice the Sunday Sun had done to the community in publishing this nonsensical story, how it was unfair, yada, yada, yada.

as he was wrapping up, he decided it might be appropriate to identify me to his spellbound audience.

The reporter who wrote this nefarious article, he informed them was seated in the back, the lady wearing the bright red blouse.

"She's one of those people who sees a communist behind every lamppost," he said.

It was one of those rare times in my life when I had what I considered the perfect verbal rejoinder to toss back at a politician.

"I don't see a communist behind every lamppost, but I do see one on each and every chair in this room, and what's more I pinched the guestbook on the way in," I responded.

at this point, people were overturning their chairs in their haste to get out of the room, and Layton looked angrier that any pasture's bull.

If there is nothing wrong with being a Communist, then why are they all running, I wondered.

In my books, Layton never grew up, although he did go on to take over the helm of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) as president, built up on name recognition before successfully running for the federal NDP leadership.

No one other than me much remembers that he got a lot of help from a guy called Paul Martin, then Minister of Finance in the Prime Minister John Chretien-led administration. During Layton's brief stint as FCM president, Martin committed to a revolving, $250-million, at arm's length from the government FCM grant.

The millions earmarked for the FCM, which maintains a heavy emphasis on `green infrastructure' came from the 2000 federal budget.

Paul Martin is now Canada's prime minister. Reduced to minority status in last June's election, Martin's plagued-by-scandal Liberal Government is under the threat of the Conservative Opposition forcing a return to the polls.

This chapter sees Layton making a deal with Martin that keeps the scandal-ridden Liberal government propped up.

Many Canadians are registering surprise that Layton would play the role of kingmaker for what seems to be a corrupt regime.

Not moi. Ever since he came on to my radar screen more than two decades ago, I've known that if you were to look up the word "Opportunist" in the proverbial dictionary, you'd find the latest airbrushed photo of `Smilin' Jack Layton.

Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com


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