This is a guest post by Debbie. Debbie is a long time reader of Feministe, and very occasional commenter. She lives in Toronto.
Last week, Canadians awoke to the news that Jack Layton, leader of the federal New Democratic Party had died of cancer.
Throughout his political career, Jack Layton championed progressive and feminist causes, including reproductive rights, pay equity, LGBT rights, affordable housing, improving public transportation, and fairer immigration policies. He was involved in HIV/AIDS activism in the early days of the pandemic in Toronto, co-founded the White Ribbon Campaign, and played an instrumental role in bringing about the Canadian government’s apology to First Nations residential school survivors. Others have done a better and more thorough job of listing his many accomplishments here, here, here, and here.
I was thrilled when the NDP became Canada’s official opposition in May, even though it meant that we had a Conservative majority government. In a global political and economic climate that has left many of us feeling so hopeless, Canadians had voted in record numbers for a political party that opposed corporate tax cuts at the expense of small businesses and social services, supported organized labour, and consistently championed the interests of marginalized people. I don’t think this would have been possible without Jack Layton’s leadership. He was certainly the most well-liked and well-respected politician in Canada, in large part because he listened to people, and made them feel that not only were their voices important, but that change was possible.
In his final letter to Canadians, Jack Layton reminded us that we can do better, becoming “… a country of greater equality, justice, and opportunity.”
He closed with the following:
“My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world.”
Rest in peace, Jack. You will be greatly missed.
<3 Excellent post. He's left some impressive shoes to fill.
It’s still hard for me to wrap my mind around the idea of the Canadian political landscape without Jack. I was looking forward to seeing him bring it against Harper. Thanks for the memories, Jack.
That he did.
I like this post. Thank you very much Debbie.
Thank you so much for posting this. It’s such a tremendous loss for Canada and so hard to believe that he didn’t get a real chance to act as leader of the opposition — a position he fought for against all odds, earned, deserved and won — who knows what would have been accomplished. I’ll miss seeing him bike through my ‘hood in Toronto.
SUCH a loss for Canada :(
Great post Debbie!
I miss him. He represented the best of Canada and I can’t accept that he’s dead. Too soon. Way too soon. I’m a new citizen and I was very happy to vote NDP in the last election. And that was ALL because of Jack.
Debbie, thank you SO much for this! What an amazing man he was and yes they are big shoes to try to fill.
I cried when I read his farewell letter. Very proud to be Canadian.
Debbie, thank you SO much for this! What an amazing man he was and yes they are big shoes to try to fill.
I cried when I read his farewell letter. Very proud to be Canadian.
This has just been devastating. As others have said, it’s a really bitter loss that we never got to see him take his place facing off against the big guy – a place he more than earned, given how the PC have capitalized on and catered to the worst aspects of humanity – fear, greed, pettiness, ignorance and injustice – to make their gains, while Jack pushed for his higher road vision, with integrity and compassion, through the good and the bad.
I wish more people with the passion and leadership qualities he had ended up in politics instead of doing who knows what. I hope we can find new talent to carry the torch. Or in the words of someone at his giant chalk memorial -
Thanks for the fight, Jack. We got this.
I’m not Canadian (live in Ohio), but my husband is originally from Sri Lanka and he has tons of family in the Toronto area. They are all terribly upset about his death–he was a great friend to the Tamil community there.
I went to Jack Layton’s funeral and it was very moving. I was standing in the overflow crowd outside, surrounded by hundreds of people. We watched the ceremony on a huge screen. People were crying and singing together, and passing around tissues. The energy and love in the crowd was amazing. Canada is definitely missing something now that Jack is gone. There’s just no replacing him.
If anyone is interested in watching the eulogies given by Jack Layton’s children or Stephen Lewis, the videos can be found here.
I can’t watch those without crying too much to work.
This is a great post about such a tragic turn of events, and all the comments are truly moving. I cried (a lot) when I found out for two reasons.
While the loss of this man is tremendous, I’m particularly jolted by it because he was the last glimmer of hope in keeping this country from being handed over to extreme right-wing Conservatives. With the exception of the Calgary mayorship surprise last October, just about every election in the last year has ended with an overwhelming victory for right-wing fundamentalists at municipal and federal levels. With the looming provincial election in Ontario this fall, it seems that against all reason, Tim Hudak is going to take it–and if Rob Ford or Stephen Harper’s victories have been any indication, it will likely be a majority. While the NDP still hold all the seats they earned in May for the next four years, they’re now without experienced and prominent leadership to guide them, and Canada is without an icon of hope. It’s truly devastating, both right now and in the long-term.
I spent a good portion of last week crying my heart out, from hearing the news of his death, writing my own blog post on it, reader his final letter, visiting the memorial on Parliament Hill in Ottawa and finally watching the beautiful funeral service this weekend. Rarely has a politician been so unanimously loved and respected, even by those whose politics are opposed to his own. I’ve heard outpourings of grief from friends and family who are steadfast Tories, because although they might not believe in the NDP’s platform, they believed in Jack’s love of Canada. No one could ever deny that.
He was a great, great man, and a light for Canada. We’ll never forget you, Jack.
i also spent the better part of last week crying. after the last federal election, my only consolation was that the ndp won the opposition – i was so looking forward to seeing jack counter harper at every corner, for the next four years. he would have done an amazing job!
i urge fellow ontario-ians to vote during this upcoming provincial election – hudak in office would be an utter tragedy.
Emotional read. Thank you for sharing his story with us.
Jack will be sorely missed. I wish the fact of Rob Ford having to walk past impromptu memorials every single day would give him pause about his policies and what a truly great politician can mean to a city and country.
Thanks for this post.
Jack was my MP. I didn’t always agree with him or the direction in which he took the NDP (though, in retrospect, most of those decisions turned out to be good ones), but I had a great deal of respect for him and the incredible work that he did.
I think for people outside Canada it’s difficult to imagine how hard this is hitting us. He was the best hope for the Canadian left in decades, but he was also a very accessible politician and a genuinely real person. I used to run into him and his wife, the amazing Olivia Chow, at demos or just on the street. The last time I saw him, he was busking outside my house to raise money for the Stephen Lewis foundation.
Anyway, I’ve been crying a lot lately, but it warms my heart to see how his death has mobilized people. Right now, there are orange ribbons wrapped around the trees in my neighbourhood, many local businesses have signs and quotations in their windows, and the riding association held a candlelight vigil and singalong where we met each other and talked and swapped stories. Provincially, the NDP has just surged in the polls, which is wonderful because before this, the Conservatives were supposedly going to win in a landslide. So, yeah. Hope.
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