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Despite the prolonged rending of hearts in Ottawa and Toronto over the death of Jack Layton, that - and a buck-fifty - would buy you a coffee in most parts of the rest of Canada.

Let's be blunt. He was little more than the leading salesman for a discredited brand of politics.

His death was sad, yes, but the rest of Canada has moved on.

If it weren't for wire-to-wire coverage of his funeral by the state broadcaster, and the over-the-top coverage of the left-wing media, the majority of Canadians would have likely forgotten Jack Layton's funeral was today.

Outside of Ottawa and Toronto, few teddy bears or fresh-cut flowers were wasted on makeshift memorials that will soon become landfill.

Layton was a politician, not a saint.

Yes, it is tough to die at a too-young age of 61, and tough to die at the top of your game. But life is tough too.

Die when you are old, or die when your party has tossed you aside, and the pages of adulation suddenly become two paragraphs.

Jack Layton went out as close to the top as he would ever get, and he died so close to his unprecedented and unexpected showing for the NDP that he was given more than his accomplishment deserved.

Like a state funeral, for example, and now talk of him being posthumously bestowed the title of The Right Honourable Jack Layton.

He deserves neither.

Sorry, but those are the hard facts.

Layton was no more than a career politician. He never hit the jackpot. He never became mayor of Toronto, although he tried, and he never would ever become prime minister.

Compared to mountainous achievements, Layton's is a molehill.

And what's with the CN Tower lighting itself up like an orange popsicle, and Niagara Falls turning itself into an unpaid ad for Orange Crush when both are taxpayer-owned?

They are not NDP play toys.

Worst of all, until they ran afoul with Elections Canada and had to backtrack, the NDP exploited Layton's death by asking condolence donations to be made to the Broadbent Institute, a lefty think tank not yet a legal entity.

And even promising a tax credit.