RIP Jack Layton

JR · Sep 7, 2011

Elliotte Friedman said:

At the risk of getting chewed up in this debate, I think I understand what Iron Chet is trying to say.

A close family member died in a similar manner to Layton. She thought she'd beaten cancer, only to have it return even more vengefully and kill her. It was a cruel fate for Layton, because it came as he reached his greatest heights of popularity.

It's funny Bob Rae's name came up in this thread, because he probably did more than anyone to damage the NDP in Canada. He did such an awful job as Ontario's premier that it scared voters across the country. If it wasn't for Rae, Mike Harris and his "Common Sense Revolution" may never have happened. (To be fair, Mike Harcourt shares some of the blame because the New Democrats were just as bad in BC.)

Mulroney's mistakes got the Conservatives crushed to three seats in 1993, but people forgot the NDP got just nine. By 2006, when Harper won his minority government, the NDP had less than 30 in the House. Layton had been leader for four years already. In fact, in 2004, he predicted 40 seats and got less than half of that. And, he was 0-3 in federal election campaigns before he won the NDP leadership.

Layton's strength was that he gave voice to a lot of people who really didn't have one, but I do agree with Chet in the sense that his impact probably wasn't as great until the recent election. He made a brilliant strategical decision to go hard at BQ voters, and it paid off. (Although, I really do think he put some incredibly unqualified people there.) The election breakthrough finally gave him a serious platform. It's sad that we'll never see what he could have done with it. His death came at the time in his life where he was most relevant.

Also, Layton had a bad won-loss record
Click to expand...

Agree with most of what you said but don't forget Bob Rae came into power at a time when the Canadian economy was the worst it had been since the Depression.

I also think that Ontario voters were looking for anyone as an alternative. Problem was the Liberals' leader Lyn McLeod was friggin hopeless so Mike Harris had the voters dropped on this lap.

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RIP Jack Layton

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RIP Jack Layton

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