Christie Blatchford’s Jack Layton column sparks backlash on social media

Jack Layton's last words: "Love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear . . . have already been turned into posters and Canada is gearing up for an emotionally cathartic state funeral for the popular New Democratic Party leader.

Count Christie Blatchford out.

The Toronto-based columnist for the National Post cast a cold, unsentimental eye on the coverage of Layton's death Monday from cancer, and especially his final public letter to Canadians.

The letter, essentially Layton's final political testament, is "vainglorious," full of "sophistry," and guilty of being crafted with help from the dying leader's closest advisers.

"It's remarkable because it shows what a canny, relentless, thoroughly ambitious fellow Mr. Layton was," Blatchford writes. "Even on Saturday, two days before he died, he managed to keep a gimlet eye on all the campaigns to come."

Blatchford also needles her colleagues for abandoning their journalistic detachment, instead putting a supportive arm around Canada's collective shoulder as it revved up to Princess Di levels of grieving.

" . . . television anchors donned their most funereal faces, producers dug out the heavy organ music, reporters who would never dream of addressing any other politician by first name only were proudly calling him 'Jack,' Blatchford observed. "Even serious journalists like Evan Solomon of the CBC repeatedly spoke of the difficulty "as we all try to cope" with the news of Mr. Layton's death.' "

Needless to say, a lot of people reacted as if "Blatch" had cut a loud fart at a church service.

"Ms. Blatchford, you really are a horrible human being and a very sorry excuse for a Canadian," one anonymous comment says.

"All humanity has the right to mourn as the individual sees fit. How dare she dictate," L.L. writes. "To imply that this display of love, respect and grief negates Jacks (sic) good works is simply a disgrace."

Her colleague at the Post, Jonathan Kay, sprang to Blatchford's defence, comparing her view to those who challenged hyperbolic feeling that reigned after Pierre Trudeau's death in 2000.

"Eleven years later . . . the same climate of enforced sentimentality is in effect: The entire Canadian media has given a free pass to Jack Layton's widely published deathbed political manifesto, which promiscuously mingled laudable paeans to love and optimism with not so laudable snipes at the Harper government . . . "

Great column-writing is about more than intelligence and insight, Kay writes.
"It is the courage to say what is plain and true, even if it cuts against the wall of sentiment that suffuses those around you," he observes.

Blatchford didn't lack for public supporters. GeorgeIII posted a comment praising her for skewering "the maudlin, mawkish behaviour," surrounding Layton's death. Another found her column "balanced and reasoned," acknowledging Layton's political accomplishments and the courage of his fight against cancer.

"Christie Blatchford is bang on," open-line host Dave Rutherford tweeted. "Today I said Layton should be remembered for the coalition threat, and his death bed diatribe against Cons."

Journalists cultivate a hard-edged persona and newsrooms are full of black humour.

Witness Calgary Sun City Editor Dave Naylor's tweet about Layton: "Maybe he's not dead. Maybe he's just stiff and needs a good massage," alluding to the time Layton was found in a Toronto massage parlour during a raid. He quickly apologized.

Anyone who's read Blatchford over the years knows that within her tough-journalist exterior there's a soft, sometimes sentimental core, especially when it comes to Canadian soldiers, people screwed by the courts and Obie, her English bull terrier.

But it doesn't extend to most public figures, whose actions deserve careful scrutiny, even at the very end.

(Reuters Photo)