Hyperbole, thine name is Jack!

Well we’re less than a week into this grand exercise of democracy and already the principles are barely on speaking terms. Smilin’ Jack Layton offered up a wonderful tribute to Paul Martin’s reign, when he suggested that Martin is responsible for the deaths of many homeless people in Toronto and across Canada. Now how the Metro Police Homicide missed out on this key suspect is anyone’s guess, but Jack is on the case and it’s now officially closed. Martin is apparently a murderer. Did anybody tell Bono about this, I’m sure he wouldn’t want to hang out with a guy that ranks with Pol Pot and Saddam? And the Liberals thought they wrote the book on mud slinging!

Layton later in the day offered up the ever faithful retort, “nothing personal”, though one wonders just how much more personal you could get when you announce that the Prime Minister of the country is possibly a mass murderer, it’s not exactly a toss aside line by any stretch of the imagination.

The NDP leader, who has been feeling his oats of late, was comparing the funding cuts under Martin as Finance Minister, as directly responsible for the unfortunate demise of Toronto’s homeless and urban poor. At a rally Wednesday night Layton launched his attack with the now well documented words of accusation; "I believe that when Paul cancelled affordable housing across this country it produced a dramatic rise in homelessness and death due to homelessness," Mr. Layton said at a rally Wednesday night. "I've always said I hold him responsible for that."

Needless to say the Martin people are furious at the salvo against the humanity of the Prime Minister and earlier in the day Thursday were calling for an apology from Layton, by the end of the day they said it was too late now. Leaving open now the speculation that some of that negative attack ad money ear marked for the Harper campaign may now find its way towards Jacko’s party.

As for Martin he appeared a tad shocked at the visceral nastiness of the remark and stated that Layton is “condemned by his statements”. He would not answer them back directly, claiming that he preferred to face this election on issues and did not want to sink to that level of acrimony. However, that may not stop the NDP leader.

As Thursday night wound down, Layton was at another public event where he again repeated his belief that the policies of the Liberal party were directly responsible for the nation’s homeless crisis. He even went further by condemning the Ontario and Quebec provincial governments and praising the Parti Quebecois for its more humane approach to the issue. Gilles Duceppe had best watch out, Jack is trolling in his sea.

One assumes that the nasty tone of this campaign is going to get a lot darker before we see any sunny days. By the time we go to the polls at the end of June these guys may resemble cage match veterans with the WWE rather than a debating society for Parliamentarians.