Jack Layton (L) and actor Rick RobertsThe Canadian Press/ Andrew Vaughan and Fernando Morales/The Globe and Mail
Now we know who will be the TV doppelgangers for late NDP Leader Jack Layton and his wife Olivia Chow. It's Rick Roberts, a veteran Canadian actor who was in the show Traders, and Sook-Yin Lee, the former MushMusic veejay and host of CBC radio show Definitely Not The Opera.
The CBC ordered up the biopic, to be called Smilin' Jack: the Jack Layton story, earlier this year. According to a press release, the made-for-TV-movie "follows the 2011 election campaign that began with Layton on crutches and down in the polls, to leading his party to its largest mandate since the party was formed. The movie also traces the love story between Layton and his wife Olivia Chow, through their years in civic politics and finally onto the national stage."
Mr. Roberts, according to his Wikipedia bio, is 45 – 16 years younger that Mr. Layton when he passed away last year – and presumably is working on his mustache.
Campbell Clark