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NDP leader Jack Layton died this morning.
As Halifax is an NDP stronghold, and as Layton was a regular visitor to our town, we’re wondering what it means to you, what it means to Halifax, and what happens next. Please leave your memories and thoughts in the comments.
This article appears in Aug 18-24, 2011.
13 Comments
For me personally it’s a huge loss in our country’s leadership. Like so many, I felt assured that Layton would hold the other leaders accountable. He wouldn’t back down from a fight, yet he was a reasoned and articulate advocate, he didn’t argue just for the sake of it. I also had the good fortune of sharing an elevator with Jack Layton one day. He was whistling, smiling, and engaged me in small talk. He seemed so cheerful and optimistic, and I believe that was his general disposition. For Halifax I am less sure what his death means, although I got the sense he understood our city and when he visited he enjoyed himself here and made himself very accessible to the citizens. He had the innate ability of fitting in wherever he went and Halifax was no exception. What happens next? I guess we wait and see. He leaves a legacy and a big NDP caucus. Hopefully they carry on as he would have hoped, and the example he set as a politician and human being is followed.
A terrible shame to see a popular leader with such potential leave us so suddenly. Frightening how someone can in the course of 6 months go from leading an energetic campaign to lead a country to this. I can’t help but wonder what predicament Canada would be in right now if he were successfully elected PM in April.
I had the priviledge of meeting Jack a few years ago at meetings with local social justice advocates on affordable housing. As many others have said, he was very much the same person face to face as he was in the public eye. He was energetic, engaged, and he understood the issues facing the most marginalized in our society. He told many stories about his time as a councillor in Toronto, and the issues that folks living in poverty experienced there. His death is a huge loss because we didn’t just lose a politician, we lost an advocate. And a damn good one at that. His loss is a great one and I can only hope that whatever comes next will mirror his spirit and commitment to community.
Quite frankly his death, though sad for family and friends, has not nor will affect me or this city, as he nor the NDP have any real power.
I think Canada has lost an articulate and vigorous progressive voice on the national political stage. His personal likeability and popularity enabled the NDP to make huge gains in the last federal election. He was respected by many across the political spectrum. I know personally some “true blue” Conservatives who, oddly enough, while affirming that they would never vote for him because of the policies he promoted, nevertheless felt that, of the various party leaders during our recent election, Jack was the most honest, likeable and compassionate one of the bunch. Unfortunately, we won’t get to see him lead the Official Opposition in a country with some important choices to make in the coming years.
Like Jack, I was optimistic that the NEXT election would see Canadians do something federally for the first time that they had already done numerous times provincially, and that is elect an NDP government. I’m still optimistic about that, but it will be harder without Jack at the helm.
I think what folks saw in him and appreciated was that his commitment to social justice wasn’t a thin veneer to be polished up at election time. Jack talked the talked AND walked the walk. He was working hard on these issues decades ago, as a Toronto city councilor and he never stopped working to move the progressive agenda forward.
I don’t know what it means for Halifax, except that, as part of the Canadian political conversation, Haligonians, like all Canadians, have lost a powerful and progressive voice.
As to what happens next, I think the NDP will have to move forward relatively quickly (I think the plan is to choose a new leader in January) in replacing Jack (he left big shoes to fill) with someone as passionate and articulate and personable as Jack was.
I think it was a generous move by Prime Minister Harper to offer the family a state funeral. I think it was an acknowledgment of the broad appeal that Jack Layton had to Canadians across the nation and across party lines, and an indication of the esteem in which he was held by his colleagues in Parliament, of all political persuasions.
It’s sad for his family. It even seems terribly unfair that his personal moment of triumph was cut short by this filthy disease. But the Rites of Beautification are rapidly becoming insufferable and will only get worse. His reputation for “Honesty” “Compassion” and “Principle” will forever remain untarnished by anything remotely resembling the responsibility of holding actual power and the hard choices that come with it.
As far as Nova Scotia is concerned, apres Jack le deluge. Once again the issues of the nation will take second place to the appeasement of Quebec. All that self-congratulatory back slapping 3 months ago may have been premature. You may honestly believe that the NDP co-opted the separatist movement. Be very carefull that the reverse doesn’t come to pass.
Judging by the newspaper covers i walk by I’m guessing I’m lucky I don’t watch a lot of tv.
I do not share Mr. Laytons political perspective, but I do feel saddened that he died at a relatively young age and leaves a family, much like many other people in this world.
What I am getting tired of is the over coverage of this event, it cheapens it and brings out all the weepie kooks, the teddy bear buyers, candle lighters and other assorted nutjobs who couldn’t name one thing Mr. Layton has accomplished in his long career.
On a separate note – nice of you to use this forum to rant away with your own pathetic agenda mcgaidheal – still filing the W5 forms with the police?
WTF is this pollster going around saying Jack was “Our Diana” How the fuck are they remotely alike. There is only one reason he is getting a State Funeral (which he IS NOT entitled to have) and that was due to the PM’s good graces. And what do the NDP and the media do? They make a circus out of it. I wonder what Jack would say.
Jack Layton was a traitor who whored himself out to the French and turned his back on English Canada. He was a modern day Faustus with all of the pathos and none of the gravitas.
anonymouscritic1 wrote:
“Jack Layton was a traitor . . .”.
Well what do you know? Canada DOES have its own version of the Tea Baggers.
“Jack Layton was a traitor who whored himself out to the French and turned his back on English Canada. He was a modern day Faustus with all of the pathos and none of the gravitas.”
Pffffffaaaaahahahahaaha!!! Oh man!! You simply must be trollin’.
Nobody’s death is to be cheered, including Layton’s.
The hype and rhetoric however by the New Democrats as they circled the coffin was appalling. Megan Leslie’s shameless submission of a cartoon in The Coast in a shallow attempt to show some connection to the dead popular leader is the epitome of poor taste in an attempt to retain support.
The pre-death letter co-authored by Layton, his MP wife Chow and two high ranking party members carefully crafted for political effect is laughable . Layton’s greatest accomplishment was increasing his family income to $400,000 + annually, at tax payer expense, plus $1 million expenses and free rent all paid for by the public. All the while
pretending to champion the cause of the poor and homeless. As phony as P.T. Barnum and twice as smooth!
Bousquet’s usually pragmatic ,logical approach has obviously been obscured by Megan Leslie, an obvious regular contributor & advertiser . The Coast seems to attract the lunatic fringe much like bears to honey!