puts the lie to this.
[Harper] said it was "a sign that Canadians of all regions and backgrounds have found a home in our Conservative party, that Conservative values are Canadian values and that the Conservative party is Canada's party."
There are insightful and appreciative tributes coming from all corners.
Check out Montreal Simon and Alison at Creekside.
Here's my fave photo*, also from Alison's, titled 'And After They Ran Out of Room on the Wall'.
Canada is progressive and compassionate and inclusive. I, and millions of others, know it in our hearts. Organs sadly lacking in the minority of Canadians in charge.
At. The. Moment.
*photo is bigger at Alison's
12 comments:
Great post, fern hill.
(I hope you'll excuse my curtness. I typed a bunch of other stuff but I just deleted it, I'm clearly too emotional to make much sense right now. Will comment again later.)
wv - hippyo
Thanks, Fern. "Canada is progressive and compassionate and inclusive" - perfection.
No problem, JJ. I think a lot of people have been taken by surprise by their own reaction.
And you know what? Jack would have loved this outpouring, not for himself, but for all our better selves.
Oh frig, where are the kleenex. The service has begun.
The remark by 4 of 10 about how we are all secretly Conservative is more indicative of nervousness than of conviction. He hasn't even convinced himself, let alone others.
I'm still surprised at how much Jack Layton's death affected me. I knew I'd be sad, but wow. All week long I've found my eyes welling over when I contemplate that Layton has died or see some of the memorials for him. It's really quite incredible.
Similarly, I'm stunned by the wide swath of Canadians that affection for Layton seems to cut across. There is something, this is something, that we... all Canadians... should grab onto.
Presumptuous of me, perhaps even blitheringly obvious, but it seems people are mourning and supporting more than Mr. Layton.
Over 60percent of the population considers itself non-conservative, but the public media of the two main countries on this continent give short shrift to that and elected powers are declaring Real Canadians are Conservatives. What opportunities are there for average people to speak out and echo, "what he said", at least without being labeled trouble makers?
At an extreme end, in Egypt, a suffering man set himself alight in protest, trying to make himself heard. His death was iconic to so many others.
In Canada, peacefully, Mr. Layton took the power of being on the edge of forever and gave people like him words of encouragement and protest the media could not fail to report. The PM gave official sanction to grieve as a nation.
Those few, those sad few, who decided to get the ideological knives out and mock the power of grief from bully pulpits, I notice avoid mention that PM-Harper-authorized the expense and respect, and that the PM attended the funeral. The 'spectacle' seems to have occurred full-blown from the forehead of Stalin so far as the yapping dogs are concerned. Or do they believe somehow, their chessmaster was manipulated into this?
That said, on watching the visual reactons of Conservative federal politicians at the state service, I wonder how many of them, looking at the unifying grief and public displays, are silently wondering if the state recognition was a good idea.
But then, the Conservatives do have a parliamentary majority. What actions will people need to do, to move them other than as they will? I suspect the mockery against anyone who tries hasn't even gotten out of park.
PS: For those that try to yap Layton's passing isn't a topic out 'West', a block from here, hanging from a front balcony is a salvaged election lawn sign from May. A big one.
On it, RIP has been handpainted in beside Jack Layton's name. A silent salute in plain view.
Niles, the self-immolation by fire, that was Mohammed Bouazizi who sold fruit and vegetables illegally in Sidi Bouzid Tunisia because he could not find a job.
Is that the individual you meant?
Niles :
Sun News: Vast majority of Canadians support state funeral for Layton
"NDP Leader John Gilbert "Jack" Layton's state funeral was supported by 81% of Canadians surveyed, the Angus Reid firm announced an hour before the Saturday event.
But in addition to about 800 of the 1,005 Angus Reid regulars polled in every region ..., the polling agency said at least 70% "who voted for parties other than the NDP in the last federal election believe Layton deserves this honour."
And that's from Sun News.
Maybe Steve ok'd Jack's state funeral out of a sense of doing the right thing or even just the inevitable thing but I can't help wondering if he saw it as an opportunity to frame the issue as the funeral of the NDP.
Tah for the link, Fern.
Ms DeBee, your gentleman was the first self-immolating person noted in the uprisings the last year, but there were other self immolating people amid the unrest.
(from wikipedia) "In Egypt, Abdou Abdel-Moneim Jaafar, a 49-year-old restaurant owner, set himself alight in front of the Egyptian Parliament.[45] His act of protest helped instigate weeks of protest and, later, the resignation of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on February 11, 2011".
150 women from Canada and the USA who were gathered for a recording project at the Banff Centre interrupted their recording to hold a minute of silence in memory of Jack last Monday.
My American roommate watched Stephen Lewis deliver the eulogy for Jack. She'd not known who either Jack Layton or Stephen Lewis were before then. We were both in tears by the end of it...
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