A Cagefighter, a Bartender and a Musician. I know There's a Punchline in There Somewhere

I'm sure had Jack Layton known that he would do so well in Quebec, he would have done better at choosing candidates. But few of his new MPs expected to win, so did little to earn their jobs.

I'm actually pleased with the students in his caucus. I think they can add a lot by giving youth a voice. The bartender who spent the campaign in Las Vegas, and couldn't hold a press conference in her riding because she can't speak French, is another story altogether.

We lose people like Mark Holland, who worked so hard to save the gun registry and the Prison Farms, but gain this ditz.

I'm trying to keep an open mind, but if anything tells us that our system is broken it's this.

However, for those who remember 1993, when the Reformers first hit the Hill, this is not the first time we were bombarded by something out of the norm.

The media wondered about the yokels and who voted for them, and the Toronto Sun referred to them as a bunch of "dung kicking rednecks". Yet many of them are still here. Harper just keeps them muzzled.

Jack Layton has four years to whip them into a caucus, and if he can't, by next election, the NDP could be reduced to a distant memory.

However, I'm sure there will be many more times when Layton will question his decision not to support strategic voting, but instead allowed his quest for power to cloud his judgement. Because he will be a helpless bystander to the destruction of Canada as we know it.

That he may have trouble living with.