This is absolutely a work of art.
"And now that we have much distance from the days of the letter’s writing and publication, it might be fine also to point out that the celebrated lines — now so earnestly being protected from quotation — are actually fairly vapid, and even to a degree confused. The seek to offer guidance, when in essence they are little more than earnest platitudes."
And then:
"There is a element of the NDP that yearns to place Mr. Layton in a secular saint’s niche. The left likes its saints – from Rigoberta Menchu to Jane Jacobs – and aim to install them somewhere beyond comment and criticism, their words off limits to all save the worshipers."
"Mr. Layton was a working politician, who had a reasonable success, never made Prime Minister, and only in his last election came to a kind of triumph as leader of the Opposition. This makes him a very distinguished Canadian, a very capable campaigner, and, if you are a fervent Jack devotee, it may make him your hero. To assert, however, that Mr. Trudeau affronted Mr. Layton’s memory, that he dishonourably used his words, is pure tripe."
"By the way, should anyone like to use any of the thousand upon thousands of word Pierre Trudeau left on the public record to measure the capacities of his son, feel free likewise. We are not yet in a county where politicians become saints on passing, where their words are scripture, and where they are protected by informal blasphemy codes."
