TORONTO — The Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center (FSWC) has had some pretty impressive fundraising events in past years, featuring A-list headliners.

Last year it was the Goreacle – Al Gore – the former U.S. vice-president and Democratic presidential candidate who is one of the foremost advocates for countering climate change.

A few years before that, his former boss president Bill Clinton headlined the event.

You can’t get much more A-list than that. But for 2008, the FSWC may well have outdone itself, if not for celebrity status, at least for interesting, entertaining, thought-provoking and often hilarious presentations.

Led by high-energy, self-deprecating, Cheetos-loving television host Glenn Beck, and supported by the scholarly musings of former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Democratic House leader Dick Gephardt, the trio thoroughly engaged 2,600 people, including 1,000 students, attending the Spirit of Hope benefit at the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts.

Speaking in a “Situation Room” format, the threesome opined on a variety of topics ranging from the presidential race south of the border to the dangers posed by Iran to climate change. There was even some mention of the Canadian scene when Gingrich turned to the audience and urged Canadians to get rid of the country’s human rights commissions which are, he said, “an act of tyranny.” Last week Mark Steyn, a conservative author and columnist, along with Maclean’s magazine, were called before a commission tribunal in British Columbia to determine whether excerpts from Steyn’s book, America Alone, published in the magazine, violated the province’s anti-hate laws by offending Muslims.

A second Canadian reference occurred when Beck, introducing the dignitaries, recited the full title of Jason Kenney, Minister for Multiculturalism and Canadian Identity. “I don’t even know what that is,” he quipped.

Humour punctuated the proceedings with Gingrich lampooning presidential hopeful Barack Obama’s hope/change slogans in a manner that would do Saturday Night Live proud. Beck said “the thing I like about Canada is that you never have to apologize for Jimmy Carter.”

But there was also serious discussion during the evening. In opening remarks, Beck described his personal evolution from a Cheetos-eating “slug” being fed the news to a more concerned individual. Sept. 11 changed him and a trip to Israel showed him it was not the country portrayed in the media. It was time for the Cheetos-eating public to wake up and take a stand, he said.

Beck voiced strong opinions on the threats posed by Iran and about the upcoming presidential election. He called the three remaining candidates – Hillary Clinton, John McCain and Barack Obama – Larry, Moe and Curly, and asked, “who is there who really hears what people are saying to move us in the right direction?”

Gephardt said, “I think this will be the toughest time to be president ever.”

The new president, he said, should level with the American people on energy, the economy, jobs, terrorism and foreign policy “and ask us to take a stand” – even to make sacrifices.

Providing thumbnail sketches of the candidates, Gingrich said McCain was passionate about security, Clinton was “the least risky” of the three while Obama is “a total wild card.” The American people could get lucky and he could turn into another John  F. Kennedy. If they’re unlucky, he could become a second Carter.

“I don’t think he knows who he is,” the former speaker stated.

Beck was much more critical of Obama. He noted his links to radicals, including a proponent of suicide bombings, and he pointed to his confusion over which concentration camp his uncle helped liberate (the candidate confused Auschwitz with Buchenwald). More important, Beck said, was that he not appease the kind of people who created the concentration camps.

That led him into a discussion of Iran, whose president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, holds the messianic belief in the return of a lost 12th imam and is willing to hasten his arrival in blood and chaos. A deterrence policy vis-a-vis Iran would not work, he suggested.

Gephardt said the use of force against Iran must remain on the table while Gingrich said Iran has paid no price for its role in the killings of American soldiers in Iraq. The “penalty” could include acts to destabilize and replace the Iranian regime, he said.

Gephardt asserted that reliance on Mideast oil lay at the root of America’s problems, including terrorism, and he advocated the government step in to raise taxes and develop alternatives “to free ourselves of Middle Eastern oil.”

Gingrich called for development of clean-burning coal plants and for drilling for oil that has already been found in the United States.

“A country determined to be suicidally stupid should not be surprised to pay a cost” for not developing new energy sources, he said.

The event raised more than $1.9 million to support the Friends’ education programs that address issues of racism, anti-Semitism, terrorism and genocide.

The event has become the FSWC’s “must attend event of the year,” Avi Benlolo, president and CEO of FSWC, said.