On August 22 Canadians woke up to the news that Jack Layton, the charismatic 61-year-old leader of the Opposition had died. “Shocked” and “heartbroken” were the words most commonly used by the media to describe the reaction to his unexpected departure. Jack had recently taken temporary leave from public life for medical treatment but no one had guessed that his cancer was so advanced.

Did his supporters ransack the hospital where he had been undergoing treatment and burn cars and shops? No. They gathered peacefully in Toronto’s downtown core, in Nathan Phillips Square, for an impromptu remembrance meeting. They carried banners and posters featuring the popular leader who was the head of the left-leaning National Democrat Party (NDP). Others quietly left flowers outside his Toronto home.

Orange Crush soda sits with flowers, candles and notes at a memorial for Jack Layton on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. –Reuters Photo

Jack did leave a letter for Canadians but no, in it he did not nominate his 31-year-old son Mike as his successor for party leadership. Nor, for that matter, did his widow Olivia Chow feel the need to reassure bereaved party members that “Canada Khappay”.

In fact, Jack recommended “that Hull-Aylmer MP Nycole Turmel continue her work as our interim leader until a permanent successor is elected [and] that the party hold a leadership vote as early as possible in the New Year.” He urged all Canadians to “give [his party colleagues] a careful hearing; consider the alternatives; and consider that we can be a better, fairer, more equal country by working together.”

What makes Jack’s untimely passing especially tragic is that barely three months ago he led his party to a historic victory – or ‘Orange Crush’ as many like to call it – in the federal elections. By winning a record 103 seats (up from a previous 37) the NDP emerged as the second party to the Conservatives, booting the Liberals into third place for the first time since Canadian confederation in 1867.

Mourners gather in Toronto's Nathan Phillips Square. –Tronto Star Photo

Even more remarkable was NDP’s performance in Quebec where it, a federalist party, won 59 out of 75 seats and thereby dislodged the nationalist Bloc Québécois in its home base. This unprecedented victory in the Francophone province was largely credited to Jack’s personal popularity among Quebec voters.

After all, it was Quebec which brought Jack Layton to the NDP. In 1970 Jack was a young Liberal Party activist when Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau invoked the War Measures Act to deal with the crisis triggered in Montreal by the kidnapping of two government officials by the militant Front de Libération du Québec. The Act gave the government sweeping emergency powers, allowed the deployment of Canadian Forces troops throughout Quebec, and gave the appearance that martial law had been imposed.

At the time opinion polls throughout Canada, including Quebec, showed widespread support for this heavy-handed treatment. Only a few politicians had the courage to go against the public mood and criticise the government for it’s suspension of civil liberties. Tommy Douglas, the leader of the NDP, was one such politician.

“I was 20 when Tommy Douglas stood up in the House of Commons and decided to defend the civil liberties of citizens across our country,” Jack later recalled. “I became an active member of the NDP then, because of this brave decision taken by Tommy Douglas and the NDP to support and protect democracy.”

Today, bereft of Jack’s strong leadership, the NDP is stunned. The Liberals have been marginalized and the Bloc Québécois is in disarray. All of this means that effectively, Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper has virtually no opposition left in the House of Commons.

Is Harper crowing at this turn of events? Hardly. He has taken the unprecedented step of honouring the highly respected opposition leader – who was also his fiercest critic – with a state funeral. While state funerals have been held for current and past governors general, current and former prime ministers and current cabinet ministers, it is possible for the prime minister of the day to accord the honour to “other eminent Canadians, should it be deemed appropriate.”

Jack Layton 1950 – 2011. –Photo by Matt Jiggins

The statement from Ottawa announced: “Prime Minister Harper has exercised his discretion and has offered Ms. Chow a state funeral for Jack Layton. She has accepted.”

The city of Toronto and the province of Ontario also announced that on the evening of Saturday August 27, the day of the funeral, Niagara Falls and the CN Tower will be illuminated with orange light “to honour the Honourable Jack Layton.”

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