Do not, I beg of you, block Jack’s face. It gets ugly.
All three main federal leaders have come away from their Olympic photo-ops ready to begin slagging one another in the House of Commons again as life gets back to normal. But before they do, each took their own unique approach in using an unprecedented golden games for Canada in order to sell their party.
Perhaps the highest profile was Stephen Harper, not difficult for a man with tickets to the Closing Ceremonies. CTV cameras panned to the federal Conservative leader several times as he alternately sat and stood with B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell who appeared to be properly juiced with the Olympic “spirits” long before Michael J. Fox made a surprise appearance.
For his part, Michael Ignatieff decided to take a more subdued approach with a typically aloof op-ed in the Globe and Mail. With an obligatory multicultural opening paragraph, Mr.Ignatieff goes on to say quite a lot about nothing in particular for the next seven, ultimately concluding the point that national unity is what really “owns the podium.”
Coming in last place, however, has to be Jack Layton, who according to eyewitness accounts, elbowed his way to the front of the bar at Wayne Gretzky’s in Toronto, wife Olivia Chow in tow, so he could be seen cheering on Canada during the men’s ice hockey finale against the Americans. Jack looked comfortably un-Jack like for once, having thrown a red jersey on and turned a baseball cap backwards for extra effect. He might have pulled off the ultimate photo-op coup de grace, as well, had he not been embarrassingly busted manhandling a woman’s arm that came dangerously close to blocking “the face”.
Jack Layton’s press secretary rushed to his defence today:
“The TV screen was up there, he moved her arm to be able to see,” Karl Bélanger told The Globe. “She was clearly not upset or anything like that. She is a friend of a former NDP candidate who happened to sit besides them for the game. They shared a great Canadian moment and enjoyed a few beers together.”
A likely story.
The most recent Ekos poll puts the Conservatives at a slight lead over the Liberals as prorogation ends, with the Conservatives polling 33.4% support, to the Liberals at 30.3%. The NDP remains at a lowly 15.8%. Ekos President Frank Graves says that now is the perfect opportunity for the Liberals to defeat the government and force an election. His main argument boils down to this:
Mr. Graves said the Liberals may never have a better time to take on the Conservatives. He said the economy is likely only to improve in the long term, public distrust of Prime Minister Stephen Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) is growing and Mr. Ignatieff, who has not caught on with voters, is unlikely to be able to change his image regardless of what he tries and how long he waits.
That makes a lot of sense. Let’s see if we can elect Michael Ignatieff as Prime Minister now, before he gets much more unpopular and much more disliked later.
Update
John Ivison points out that a new Ipsos Reid poll for Canwest News shows Michael Ignatieff bringing the rear, with only one in five voters believing he is the best man for the job of Prime Minister. Will Jack or Gilles chase him down the hill?
Not really Frank.
http://network.nationalpost.com/NP/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2010/03/01/john-ivison-ignatieff-ends-olympics-bringing-up-the-rear.aspx
Thanks Roy. I’ll update the link.
I don’t see the liberals pushing for an election.
Still, I would say the biggest loser over this break has to be Harper. He went into it with a 15 point lead, which he expected to be bolstered by feelings of love after the Olympics, and yet he comes into the new session down from where he was before.
Harper’s numbers tend to go up when the House is not in session. Normally no one from the opposition gets any media when Parliament is not sitting.
Yet here we are, the two parties close in numbers. I think the liberals will be satisfied with the current situation, notwithstanding any poll from Ipsos Reid.
“Harper’s numbers tend to go up when the House is not in session.”
The PM’s and CPC’s #’s were up the entire fall session and I don’t need a link to prove that fact. It just is one.
How does that circle get squared by that blanket statement?
From what I’ve seen, CPC numbers tend to go up when the Liberals threaten an election and down when there’s stability. So go ahead, provoke an election.
‘Normally no one from the opposition gets any media when Parliament is not sitting.’
Oh Gayle,
Iffy had non-stop media coverage, while he played Prorogie House, for 2 weeks.
The prorogation thing was media driven, not a grassroots movement, obviously.
And then Iffy had daily pressers, and a CBC team following him everywhere.
Canadians took a good look,
and said ‘nah, not qualified’.
The guy is a dud.
Wilson,
Iggy was AWOL for the Gold Medal game. No doubt he was composing his next book: “Canada: one team undivided”
I’m not exactly a fan of Iffy, but I thought his statement concerning Israel and so called ‘Apartheid Week’, was very welcome and should be the default position of all Canadian politicians.
Yes, I thought that was pretty good as well.
Yes Bec That is why I referred to his numbers when Parliament was not in session. That would also be why I used the term “tend”. If I had said Harper’s numbers always go down while the House sits you would have a point, but I didn’t, so you don’t.
Wilson – that unusual media coverage is exactly why I think Ignatieff came out of the break as the winner. He got coverage at a time when the opposition leader generally gets very little.
I think you will find most liberals are happy with things. I probably do not have to tell you about the kind of numbers Harper was getting when he was the opposition leader.
PS Wilson – it was you guys who wanted a spring election. Remember? Harper coming out of the break without the numbers to justify an election is a win for the LPC.
Adrian,
Why do you think it’s not likely that Mr. Layton was just trying to see the screen? It was the gold medal game and I seem to recall it was a rather exciting moment. If Layton wasn’t completely absorbed in the game he’d have been one of a very few Canadians. It’s easily the most plausible explanation as the lady’s arm was almost certainly blocking his view of the screen. It seems to me that attributing political motives here seems… well… just weird really.
It seems to me that attributing political motives here seems… well… just weird really.
Ish, how many times do you think Jack Layton has watched a hockey game at Gretzky’s? Jack Layton is good at a lot of things, and in his own way a great Canadian, BUT, that doesn’t mean he isn’t a camera hog. This was a photo op, pure and simple, from the minute he put on his hat backwards.
joe – maybe about as many times as many of the other people in the bar.
How many times does a hockey win result in massive street parties?
Issachar,
If it were only me, or only conservatives, or only a few people who think that Jack Layton grabbed her arm because she was blocking the face, then I could see your point.
Cynical Joe,
>> How many times has Jack Layton watched hockey at Gretzky’s?
I’ve got no idea, but I’ll give you good odds it’s more times than I’ve gone to someone’s house just to watch a hockey game, but that didn’t stop me from pouring across the Burrard street bridge with everyone else and cheering like a lunatic downtown.
It was the gold medal game. We all became massive hockey fans if only temporarily.
My point isn’t that Jack isn’t a hockey fan, its that he’s never met a camera he doesn’t want to get in front of. Someone obviously tipped Jack to the Gretzky’s gig and he made sure he got down there with the requisite gear so he could be seen. Now, its not exactly surprising that a pol is a camera hog, but its just that this specific instance is such a perfect example of the phenomenon.
No Joe, it’s not “obvious”. It’s “obvious” to you and a few other people. It’s also “obvious” to a lot of people that Stephen Harper has a hidden agenda and he “obviously” thinks the US is better than Canada, but that says more about the people who believe that than it does about Mr. Harper.
Plenty of people who aren’t hockey fans in their normal lives changed their minds for the day and wanted to get as close to the action as possible.
Plenty of people who aren’t hockey fans in their normal lives changed their minds for the day and wanted to get as close to the action as possible.
I agree with you here. Its just that its an infinitesimal subset of those fans that decided that they had to be in front of the camera as well as in front of the TV. No surprise to find Jack in that group. Just sayin’.
Issachar, Normally when they break to scenes from the bars and squares during games like that, they are for the most part live with the normal five to ten second tape delay.Therefore it is a reasonable suggestion to make that when Jack pulled her arm down it would of been when he saw his face was being blocked out not to see the game which was in not being shown at that exact moment. This is a tempest in a teapot any way, most people would of done the same thing to get there mugs on TV as well.lol