Why politics and sports don't always mix

Thanks to the inspired work of the folks at Torontoist (hat tip JN), we now know what was going through NDP Leader Jack Layton’s mind when Canada’s Sidney Crosby scored the winning goal in the Gold medal game last night. Celebrate? Perhaps.

But make sure that everyone in TV Land sees me celebrating. To ensure that was the case, Mr. Layton appeared to personally manhandle a young woman whose arm just happened to be blocking the camera’s view of his face just as the crowd at Wayne Gretzky Bar roared in delight for CTV’s feed. This from the Torontoist site:

Jack Layton spent the Olympic men’s gold medal hockey game (we won!) at Wayne Gretzky’s Restaurant, right in front of the bar, and right in front of CTV’s cameras trained on the crowd there.

Towards the end of the second intermission, just before going to commercial, CTV showed reactions to Canada’s second goal from “across the country.” And then, after a cut from a Nova Scotia crowd’s reaction to the crowd at Gretzky’s: magic. With wife Olivia Chow nearby, Layton celebrates the goal for just a second, before turning from the TV that’s playing the game to face the CTV camera instead, trying to move his body out from behind those around him, and then—when a woman’s arm raised in ecstatic celebration blocks his face from the shot—Layton takes his outstretched hand and, still smiling, grabs her arm and forces it down and out of the way as the shot fades out.

Video of the moment in all its awkward glory, captured by our Christopher Drost, is above.

Watch it for yourself, painful as it is.

MRM
(disclosure – this blog, as always, reflects a personal opinion and in no way represents the views of the TPA, its Board/Staff or the federal government)