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Report - Jack Layton Wins Big at NDP
Convention –
Jan.25.2003
Photos: The Federal NDP leadership came to Jack Layton in an easy way. He picked up 53.5 percent of the vote on the first ballot … and tossed media stories of an ANYTHING BUT JACK movement into the trash bin of urban myths. If Layton lost anything, it would have to be in the new perspective corporate media has of him. In the latest coverage he gets depicted as a photogenic character, not really on the left … and he’s even being compared to former Alliance leader Stockwell Day in one paper. In reality Jack Layton is still on the left supporting housing and green policies and nearly everything progressive, so I have to conclude that the media is seeing the Jack they wish would be. Notes on the Convention The stars brightened on Jack Layton’s career today. He called his NDP Leadership bid one of the most positive experiences of his life. For me it was the opposite. I had nothing but bad luck … most of it courtesy of the NDP. It began when they wouldn’t let me inside at the convention. At noon there was no way of being registered and that led to a series of arguments in various rooms with various officials. My position was that as a party member signed on by Jack Layton I should be able to get inside to vote or participate. But that was a no go. It seems the NDP ran this convention assuming nearly everyone would vote by mail or on the Internet. There was no allowance for people showing up at the convention to vote. A woman in Jack Layton’s office explained it best. Once you show to vote at the convention, you will find that you can’t get in. If you complain then eventually one of the candidates will get you to a computer outside the convention to vote online. My other options were to get in as media or as a guest. I tried the guest thing but the people at the Jack Layton table told me they only had ten guest passes left and they didn’t want to waste one on me. Floor officials got tired of me and escorted me to a media booth, assuring me I could get accredited and get inside. But all I got there was stared at by some corporate media guy and treated like a piece of crap. I haven’t heard of your publication the man told me … and I replied that I’d never heard of him either. In a final argument in the Convention HQ I mentioned that I went to a Tory Convention and they were much better. All interested parties got inside and could freely walk around. I went on saying that if the NDP can’t include its members in events and votes, then the people of Canada will be excluded when the NDP gains power. But the rules still said no to my entry, though no one could show me those rules or take me to the key officials in charge. And the rules seemed to keep changing against me. At the beginning they said I couldn’t get in while voting was on but would get in shortly after. When I returned the rules had changed to disallow my entry. After three hours I said I was going to go in and they would have to throw me out physically. I walked in ignoring calls to stop and got briefly on a platform with some photographers. I was trying to get some shots of Jack Layton when a goon moved in and seized me. He called for help and said that I would either leave or suffer the humiliation of being dragged out in front of the media. I said nothing, wouldn’t budge and prepared to be humiliated. Then they became conciliatory. If I would step out with them they would straighten out the registration problem. So I stepped out with one guy, but found that he was lying to me. There was no one to see about registration. Why is it so important to you that I don’t get inside? I said. What’s the reason? And he replied – The people inside have all paid a hundred dollars to get in. We have to make sure that those who can’t pay don’t get in. You mean I have to pay a hundred bucks to vote for Jack Layton, or be a guest or go in as media? I said. And he replied that was correct. Then I told him he was full of shit and he leaned into my face and stared at me like he was ready to pound the heck out of me. I’m calling the police, he said, so I left, walked inside and stood around near Layton’s camp, taking some photos. The police never came and I felt kind of dazed and confused. I didn’t dare walk about or I would be grabbed, so I ended up waiting for Jack’s win and walking to the stage using the cheering mob for cover. I wondered about other things. Out in the lobby I saw TV guy Mike Duffy. He looked like he’d been run through a polishing machine, except for his attitude. He told a couple NDP guys standing nearby to beat it because he felt nervous with people watching his camera warm-up. The Duff is a jerk to be sure but I bet he didn’t pay anything to get in and that the NDP brass sucked up to him and every other crappy corporate media stooge. The Convention location also led to wonderment. Was it a place for the elite hundred-dollar-admission NDP folk? I‘d say not. The CNE Centre looks like an airport hangar. The food sucks … all I saw were hamburger stands with prices like 7.50 an order. When I asked where I could get a beer an NDP staffer told me to walk west to Speedorama and if I paid admission there I could buy a beer. Imagine how this must have felt to people that traveled long distances to the convention. It’s sure a lot of money to spend to get trapped in an isolated dump like that. I think I know how they feel. Lately the cold has left me depressed. I rarely go out, and when I do I wish I would’ve stayed home … and I said that out loud after using the washroom at the NDP Convention … or tried to use the washroom before running out the door with shit from some guy’s exploding toilet flying in the air behind me. In the end Jack Layton’s the big guy with big dreams the NDP wanted, and I’m the little guy they didn’t need. Sure I feel bad, but at least I can be happy in knowing that if Jack ate anything there he’s sweating with the same pain and indigestion as the rest of us. This report by Gary Morton
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