When he served on Toronto City Council he spearheaded the campaign to make Toronto a Nuclear Free Zone and he was successful.....Toronto has not been bombed. Is it possible that is because of his ties to the global left?
Jack seen as architect of Ottawa power play
About to become, perhaps, Canada's most influential politician, Jack Layton has many nicknames: Citizen Jack, Gentleman Jack, Vladimir Jack, Taliban Jack, Chairman Jack and Jack-O-Lenin!
A new one being bandied about this week is Genius Jack -- as in the "evil genius" who orchestrated this whole coalition power play.
Of course, the name the NDP leader would really love to go by is Prime Minister Jack.
Those who know Layton believe that if the coalition plan goes through with Liberals and the Bloc Quebecois, he may not have the title but he'll be the one calling the shots.
"This man is organized," said Toronto Councillor Case Ootes, who added that one should never underestimate his lust for power.
People who worked with Layton never have. And they are not even the slightest surprised he was able to engineer a potential ouster of a democratically elected government just six weeks after an election.
"This was the day he has been waiting for," Ootes laughed last night. "This is Jack's cup of tea."
And Ootes knows. They go back to the early 1990s when the two worked together as councillors on then-Metro Council. "He is a very intelligent individual, a capable and smart politician. He also operates on 'the end justifies the means', " said Ootes, who admittedly leans more to the right. "Jack will go for the kill. The facts never got in the way of Jack's ambition."
Case in point, this quote from Layton: "We cannot express confidence in a government under the leadership of a party that cannot be trusted to clean up the politics it tainted."
It may look like something Layton said this week. In fact, it's from November 2005, when he announced he had decided he would no longer prop up Liberal prime minister Paul Martin's government and would vote to defeat it.
Three years later, he's the kingmaker again -- getting into bed with those same Liberals with whom he must now have more confidence in.
"Jack Layton is for Jack Layton," said newly named National Post president Paul Godfrey, who learned this first-hand as Metro chairman. "He was radical left wing and he didn't like my politics (which was right). He used to worship the ground he would like to have buried me under."
Godfrey, who like Ootes finds Layton amiable out of the political ring, understands Layton's handiwork and could see his fingerprints all over the coalition deal. "This is a Jack Layton-designed attempted coup," Godfrey said. "Jack is a very ambitious politician. His desire is to get to the top."
But he thinks this coup attempt will fail. "It is insulting to the intelligence of Canadians," he said. "Most Canadians are fair-minded people. There is no question the prime minister blundered, but is this the punishment he deserves? This overthrow is for personal gain. These three leaders should be embarrassed."
Many are certainly not embarrassed in Layton's Toronto-Danforth riding, where there are people who feel there will one day be a statue of Citizen Jack.
"He has done a lot for people here," said one man outside Layton's constituency office on Broadview Ave.
Layton was one hell of an MP and as you can see in a video on torontosun.com, inside his office yesterday his friendly constituency workers were busy taking phone calls but would not discuss anything -- referring us to a media person in Ottawa who asked photographer Michael Peake and I to leave.
We did because you wouldn't want to tick off one of the most influential men in Canada.
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