Remembering Jack Layton

   
Jack Layton died yesterday. And Canada is heartbroken.

For the uninitiated, Jack Layton was the need of the federal NDP party (see CBC interview with him here). He was the man who took it from obscurity on the national scene to being the official Opposition in the last election. But he was more than that. Much more.

I got up yesterday to the news and spent the day crying every time I turned on the TV, read a newspaper or talked about it. Everyone is devastated, both the people who are NDP supporters and, oddly, refreshingly and wonderfully, people who aren't. I watched an interview with his Chief of Staff yesterday who said she had read a letter to him on Saturday that said something like "you drive me crazy, I disagree with everything you say, but we need you. Please come back."

And that's it exactly. This country needed Jack. We needed his optimism, his hopefulness, his enthusiasm and his joy. And we needed the way he reminded us all of what makes Canada great. That we are human and humane, compassionate and helpful. And that there is more to being a great country than a balanced budget and fear. He challenged us all to do better and did so in a way that made us want to do it. He was a much-needed balance in Ottawa.

In one of the things that has amazed me in the last couple of days, is the outpouring of love and grief that is so personal. For a politician. It is not just with us regular citizens, but also with the media and his colleagues on Parliament Hill. Our Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, Jack's complete opposite in terms of politics, seemed genuinely shaken when speaking yesterday and called Jack Layton friend.

Jack Layton left a letter to Canadians, a beautiful letter, one that I hope will inspire us all to work together in a positive way to honor his legacy. In it, he said

“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.”

Thank you, Jack.
    
 
 From The Toronto Star
     

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Farber’s Disease: Could Your Child’s Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis Be Misdiagnosed?

Image
Joint inflammation or contractures. Nodules (small lumps under the skin or in other tissues). A weakened or hoarse voice. Children with these symptoms may have been diagnosed with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) or other types of juvenile arthritis . But do they actually have JIA or do they have Farber’s disease? An equine digression When you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras. This is an adage in the medical world that encourages doctors to not wander off exploring rare and esoteric reasons for a patient’s symptoms. Because most of the time, that hoof beat of a rash likely isn’t the plague, the joint pain more likely a type of arthritis than the bends (especially if the person has never scuba dived) and you get the picture. But once in a while, it actually is a zebra. And even if it’s first identified as a horse, eventually, the stripes come through. It took five years of my parents running around to different doctors before one finally recognized that I had
Read more

13 Things to Know for Rheumatoid Arthritis Newbies + Facebook Live

Image
Getting a diagnosis of any type of chronic illness can throw you for loop. There is so much to know and you have so little energy. My new slideshow for HealthCentral collects 13 things you need to know as an RA newbie : "Receiving a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a moment of strange duality. On one hand, you may be relieved to finally have answers for the symptoms you’ve been experiencing. On the other, it can be incredibly overwhelming to find out you have a chronic illness. Wrapping your head around all the new factors RA brings into your life is a long-term process. Here are some of the things you need to know." See the slideshow on HealthCentral . And in case you missed it, here is the Facebook Live I did yesterday talking about this topic:   
Read more