This article was published more than 13 years ago. Some information may no longer be current. Does anyone care that the new Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition was "found," albeit never charged, in a Toronto Police raid on a rub-and-tug massage parlor 15 years ago?
Should anyone care? The answer to the first question would appear to be a resounding no. On the very day the Toronto Sun broke the story, Jack Layton's already soaring personal leadership scores jumped some more. The rise in support suggests "that the story in fact helped" Mr. Layton, according to pollster Nik Nanos, who said the numbers showed people saw the piece as a deliberate political smear. The answer to the second is a little more complicated, or ought to be.
Nothing may better reflect the seriousness of the threat that was posed by Mr. Layton and the New Democratic Party than the timing of this story: Someone, and I don't mean the newspaper, certainly seems to have hoped it would slow the party's momentum, especially since it turns out a similar tale about Mr. Layton, minus the confirmatory details necessary for publication, was shopped around once before, to the National Post, allegedly by a Liberal campaign operative, two days before the last federal election.
It does. My big old Webster's dictionary, version, defines smear this way: "To vilify or blacken the reputation by applying a debasing or odious epithet. Layton has acknowledged that when the cops, looking for underage Asian hookers, returned to the Velvet Touch parlour in the city's downtown Chinatown on Jan. Given that the Sun reproduced pages from contemporaneous notes made by one of the officers, including Mr. Layton's name, birth date and address, he had little choice but to make the admission.
But Mr. Layton, Ms. The NDP leader said he simply went for a massage and had no idea the place was suspect; Ms. Chow noted that her husband exercises regularly, was and is in great shape and just needed a massage, and Mr. Iler said in a written statement that Mr. Layton "had no knowledge whatsoever that the therapist's location may have been used for illicit purposes. A rather richer picture was provided by the officer's reproduced notes and an interview with the Sun: Mr.
