Jack Layton: 1950-2011 Man of the People Has a State Funeral.

Today was the funeral of a good Canadian man, politician, father, husband and activist, related to a long line of activists I learned today.

There are pieces of me in at least three countries now. This weekend I chose to stay in Canada instead of heading home, hoping to attend the funeral of Jack Layton.

I did not know Mr. Layton but along with Canadians and people who have lived in Canada I was saddened by his death.

Life is so beautiful and yet can be so very cruel.

To so soon after running his brilliant and destined for the Canadian history books political campaign that took the political left from obscurity and the New Democratic Party not only to its highest federal achievement but to Her Majesty’s Official Opposition only to be struck for a SECOND time with cancer?!? *shaking head* Cancer is a scourge! Is once not enough? It was so incredibly unfair that he did not get to live long enough to enjoy his success. It had been so shocking to see what a frail looking figment of himself he had become, when on July 25th he announced his second case of an unknown cancer. You just knew from looking at him that he was in the fight of his life but I never guessed he would be dead a month later.

It was appropriate that Jack Layton be given a state funeral. Politics can be so discouraging at times. Jack Layton’s was not. His passion was for everyday people. People who fight for the PEOPLE of a country should have state funerals. Thank you Prime Minster Harper for doing that. It was the right thing to do.

Jack, your Olivia is heartbroken. At your funeral she stood strong and dignified but I could see she was trying so hard not to fall down in grief for the man she loved. It was written all over her face. I will be saying a prayer for your soul mate tonight.

When I heard that approximately 6,000 people had already paid their respects at Toronto City Hall in one day while your coffin lay in state, I soon realized that it was unlikely I would get one of the 600 seats available to the public at your funeral.

I ended up watching your funeral online where most in my generation live their lives.

There are some deaths that seem impossible to believe. For me this is one. I am not sure why? Maybe it is the unfairness of it all. We cannot find a rat bastard like Gaddafi but a good man like Jack Layton has to die just when given the opportunity to do good?!?

Jack Layton’s 2011 political triumph while being decent and civil, always fighting for the people, made me care about Canadian politics. It was made clear in my December 2008 blog the sort of Canadian House of Commons behavior that I hoped would change. I realize that the Canadian Prime Minister has a majority government and can pretty much do as he likes but I also believe that Prime Minister Harper truly wants the Conservatives to replace the Liberals as the natural governing party of Canada. That will never happen if he does much of what many of his detractors fear is his actual boogeyman agenda. He will have to govern closer to the centre where most Canadians live, the Canadian centre which is politically left of my new home in America.

That said, I really wanted to see Jack Layton as Leader of the Official Opposition and Stephen Harper as Prime Minister both function in the House of Commons with their differing visions for Canadians, no centre party to make things easier for either of them but just the Canadian left and right. Why? Good question given that I am normally not a fan of the people only having two parties to choose from. I think because Jack Layton’s ability to set aside divisions and engage in politics that respected all made me hope that problems would be solved and things would get done. His getting it done for citizens against intransigence could have helped the debt ceiling nonsense in the US.

I suspect that not many will agree with me, but then no one believed me when I said Jack Layton would become Leader of The Official Opposition, but I actually believed that it was possible for Jack Layton to win the general election at some point in the future. I still believe he could have. I know this, Canadian politics was about to be shaken up for the good of people and I think the people would have liked it very much.

I think Mr. Layton’s death touched so many for a few reasons: their deep respect for the man; the incredible unfairness of the timing of his death and the great loss they felt over what his passion could have accomplished fighting for the PEOPLE. Corporate plutocrats take care of themselves just fine but there never seem to be enough fighters for the people. Jack was one!

Until such time as we have true political parties of the people, likely created, funded and run online, which take no money from corporations, people like Jack Layton who put PEOPLE on the agenda are desperately needed in every society.

Mr. Layton, your were my kind of human and Ed Broadbent, another decent man and the granddaddy of the political left in Canada was right… Jack Layton was the man!

Salut Jack!

Sage Spencer

Next Blogum: September 2011