The ghost of Jack Layton is apparently watching over NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair.
At least that’s how it looks in a new flyer sent to residents of a Toronto riding.
A large, faded image of Layton’s head can be seen peering over the shoulders of Mulcair and local Scarborough-Rouge Park candidate Rev. KM Shanthikumar.
It’s not uncommon for local NDP candidates or Mulcair himself to remind voters that they are still the party of “Jack.”
After all, Layton’s personal popularity helped propel the NDP to its best showing ever -- 102 of 308 seats -- just months before his death in 2011.
In the final weeks before the 2011 vote, pollster Nik Nanos’s “Leadership Index Score” showed Layton was significantly more popular than Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper or Liberal Michael Ignatieff.
Mulcair hasn’t managed quite the same feat. When asked by Nanos whether each man has “the qualities to be a good political leader,” Harper has scored between 49 and 59 per cent since 2013, while Mulcair has rated between 43 and 54 per cent.
Most recently, Harper and Mulcair have been tied at 54 per cent, with Liberal leader Justin Trudeau ahead of both men at 57 per cent.
