RIP Jack Layton

Pancreatic, if you believe the rumours.

 

I believe it, especially considering the election was barely three months ago and his announcement of the new cancer was within the last six weeks.

Globe and Mail is reporting that the Prime Minister has offered, and Mrs. Chow, his widow, has accepted, the offer of a state funeral to be held in Toronto on Saturday.

 

Another great Rick Mercer clip

 

Over the years I was always on the fence with Christie Blatchford's work. Some of it resonated with me and I thought she nailed some issues perfectly.

Other times I just thought she was an angry woman with serious personal issues that embarrassingly kept popping up in her columns.

This column on the day after Layton's death just shows she's a classless misanthrope

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2011/08/22/christie-blatchford-laytons-death-turns-into-a-thoroughly-public-spectacle/

Rather, it’s remarkable because it shows what a canny, relentless, thoroughly ambitious fellow Mr. Layton was. Even on Saturday, two days before he died, he managed to keep a gimlet eye on all the campaigns to come.

Go away

 

It's a sad day, and I say that as someone who's never supported the NDP. RIP, Jack.

Oh, and fuck cancer. Can't be said enough.

 

There might have been some truth to some of Chrustie's points. Today was not the day to express them. Totally lacking in class and tact.

 

Agree. Not the time and place.

 

Never agreed with Layton's politics, either municipally or federally, but I was shocked by this. His performance in the last election was one of the most remarkable of my lifetime as he turned a moribund party into the official opposition through the sheer force of his personality as much as anything else. A couple of my friends, who consider Attila The Hun to be too left, said Layton had almost moved in to that "Right guy, wrong party" category.

The next federal election is years away but I have no idea where the NDP goes from here. The NDP cleaned up in Quebec because of Layton, not because of his party and its policies. I don't see a clear successor among its ranks. Do they try and fast track his son Michael out of Toronto city council? Too bad Layton won't live to see the fruits of what he built now that his party is the official opposition.

I may not have ever agreed with him but I respected his commitment to his beliefs.

RIP Jack, Canuckistani politics won't be the same.......

 

Some folks are suggesting Olivia Chow step up but I think she'd be a hard sell.

 

I'd agree with that, she is nowhere near the charismatic leader Layton was.

 

Well, there's a huge political vacuum in this country right now. With Jack gone, there doesn't appear to be an effective official opposition.

Huge, huge vacuum which you know who is going to fill.

John Ibbitson, as usual, nails it pretty well:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/now-no-one-stands-in-stephen-harpers-way/article2138274/

We are embarked on a generational sea change in Canadian politics. The only constant in all of this is Stephen Harper.

From that sea change, a new cast of political characters will emerge. One of them, or someone else farther down the line, will rise to challenge the new Conservative juggernaut.

The search for that person will dominate federal politics for years to come.