This week we mourn the passing of Jack Layton, the leader of the New Democratic Party. Though I have followed his career for decades in both Toronto and national politics, I believe I have read more insightful writing about his life and career this week since his passing. With great sensitivity and eloquence, some of our best Canadian political pundits have commented on his career. It has been insightful to sit back and drink in the analysis of his political longevity. One fellow Toronto politician mentioned that Jack Layton never worked from the position of power. He was always the underdog, in the minority, the ordinary man seeking to change what he saw as unjust to better his constituents, if not all Torontonians or Canadians.
My take on Jack? After all I have read and listened to this week, I sum it up this way: “Jack expected to win.” I vividly remember him campaigning furiously in the last election, seeking to shore up sure seats and invade new territory where he sensed there was opportunity to win a seat over from the incumbent. Such was certainly the case in Quebec, where the Bloc Quebecois fell, and the NDP became the first national party to hold a majority of the seats since the ruling Conservatives in the 1980’s. When questioned whether he thought they could improve their number of seats in Parliament, he seemed to chuckle to himself as he jovially responded, “Do better? My friend, we can win this thing!”
Jack expected to win. Why? Because he did the work to make it happen. I read this week of his work to build of a strong team for the campaign, a team that stuck with him for each of his campaigns through the decade and improved each time until this breakthrough came. A team he forged to win. His desire to win wasn’t based on wishful thinking, or idle dreams. He worked hard, he worked smart and he expected to do the very best he and his team could do. He was not surprised as the pollsters were who miscalled the numbers (see my blog of June 11, “Reflections of a humbled pollster”). He expected to win.
Now as we reflect on his passing, and some have mistakenly applied this thinking to his health, and say he “lost his fight to cancer”. I am troubled by that terminology, which depicts this dreadful illness as something we can fight and win. For helpful thoughts on this, I refer you to Carly Weeks’ excellent article in the Globe and Mail, “Jack Layton Didn’t Lose a Fight: He Died of Cancer” http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health/new-health/conditions/cancer/jack-layton-didnt-lose-a-fight-he-died-of-cancer/article2137736/.
When I say Jack expected to win, I mean he worked very hard to do his very best, and he expected the results to come. I pay tribute to Jack Layton as a man of conviction, of passion and care for ordinary people and the country he loved. I think back to the night he became the first NDP Leader of the Opposition, and remember him. Yes, he expected to win, and he finally did!
© Brian F. Reynolds BFRspace 2011
“What do you expect? The question you need to ask!” is now available in paperback for $20 (Can) from Scarlet Cord Press (www.scarletcordpress.com).
