Thanks a lot, Jack. . . .

Maybe I'm being way too hard on Jack Layton. In my Chronicles column today, I write that most Canadians didn't even want this election, and thanks to Jack’s hubris, we appear to be about to lose the most progressive Parliament since the days of Lester Pearson, quite possibly getting instead the most right-wing government in Canadian history.

But if you think I'm being too hard, you should read what the Winnipeg Free Press columnist Frances Russell has to say: “After surfing all summer on writing Canada's first social democratic budget and boasting of better to come in the fall, Layton abruptly pulled the plug on the government for reasons he never explained to Canadians," Russell writes. "The NDP will soon be back in its usual place, carping ineffectually from the sidelines. Except, that is, for one very large loose end. The RCMP income trust investigation, requested by the party's finance critic, turned the campaign on a dime.

“New Democrats, and particularly, Winnipeg North MP Judy Wasylecia-Leis, must be praying that the Mounties come up with some proof of a leak. Failure to do so can only mean one thing: a democratic government has been toppled, in large part, by a specious politically inspired police investigation. As one observer puts it: `Do not underestimate the seismic magnitude of this investigation's outcome. This sort of thing is what distinguishes a G8 country from a banana republic.’"

Meanwhile, the University of Toronto’s John Crispo, in today’s Globe and Mail, similarly blasts Layton for his “ego trip,” and “the net result of all these political machinations is that there is no realistic political alternative on the left or social democratic side. This is appalling.”

Too harsh?