Jack Layton died early this morning "surrounded by family and loved ones" after a lengthy battle with cancer.
He died just months after helping catapult the NDP to Official Opposition status in Parliament for the first time in the party's history.
In the short time since his death, there has been a massive response from the public and politicians from all sides of the political spectrum offering their condolences.
“I was deeply saddened to learn this morning of the death of Jack Layton,” Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in a statement. “On behalf of all Canadians, I salute Jack’s contribution to public life, a contribution that will be sorely missed."
“I know one thing: Jack gave his fight against cancer everything he had. Indeed, Jack never backed down from any fight.”
Recently-elected MP Guy Caron - of Rimouski-Neigette-Témiscouata-Les Basques - said he and his NDP colleagues feel a great loss.
"Like myself, many of them have joined the NDP or have even started to get involved in politics after being inspired [by] Jack Layton's view of politics, view of life, view of what the country should be like," Caron said.
In an open letter to Canadians dated Aug. 20, Layton addressed young people, his party and caucus, as well as those battling cancer.
"To other Canadians who are on journeys to defeat cancer and to live their lives, I say this: please don’t be discouraged that my own journey hasn’t gone as well as I had hoped," he wrote. "You have every reason to be optimistic, determined, and focused on the future. My only other advice is to cherish every moment with those you love at every stage of your journey, as I have done this summer."
Catholic Insight has an interesting take on the passing of Jack Layton -
ReplyDeletehttp://catholicinsight.com/online/political/article_1170.shtml
- which says:
Leader of the New Democratic Party, Jack Layton, dead
By Alphonse de Valk
After the elections of May 2, 2011, Jack Layton achieved the status in Canada’s Parliament of “Leader of the Opposition.” He died on August 22, before Parliament had resumed.
Mr. Layton inherited the leadership of a Party fully secular and this-world oriented, like its socialist brethren throughout the world. It did not, and in Canada could not, indulge in the unbridled violence of its Communist (scientific socialist) cousins but in all other respects a thin veneer of unacknowledged Christian justice and concern for the poor could barely tame its wrongheaded solutions to almost every economic and political issue. Mr. Layton himself was a victim. When Liberalism in Canada threw off its Christian principles under Trudeau, the NDP was only too glad to follow in lockstep: support for killing unborn babies, divorce, the dissolution of the family, euthanasia, the homosexual lifestyle, transgenderism, all are fodder for its members. Morgentaler, the butcher of Canada, was one of his heroes.
As a Toronto City Counsellor, he personally mocked and yelled at pro-life activists who witnessed to the dignity of all human life before Morgentaler’s Toronto abortuary in the 1980’s. At that time, smiling Jack forgot to smile.
In the end, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, clever politician he is, grandly exploited the sentimental aura of Mr. Layton’s death by ordering a state funeral.
© Copyright 2003-2010 Catholic Insight
Updated: Aug 23rd, 2011 - 14:05:41
National Post columnist Christie Blatchford wasn't an admirer of him either: http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2011/08/22/christie-blatchford-laytons-death-turns-into-a-thoroughly-public-spectacle/
ReplyDeleteMore thoughts on Jack Layton's passing, from Socon or Bust: http://www.socon.ca/or_bust/?p=17930
ReplyDeleteI am a practicing Catholic and a three-time cancer survivor (though I won't claim that either of these facts add any validity to my comment, I still felt I should mention them).
ReplyDeleteI find these backhanded comments - and perhaps even barely concealed joy - about a man who died so recently very upsetting.
By no means should anyone read the least bit of joy into any of these comments. I doubt anyone is rejoicing over Mr. Layton's death. Some of the commentary coming out now is in response to the hagiography circulating about his life, when the policies he supported contributed so much to the culture of death in Canada. Much the same controversy arose following U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy's death. Jack Layton, requiescat in pace.
ReplyDeleteHere are some more thoughts on Layton's passing:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cccb.ca/site/eng/media-room/statements-a-letters/3144-statement-following-the-death-of-the-leader-of-the-opposition
Brent