I’d never vote NDP but I wish him well, I hope he recovers. But from what I saw at the press conference, the gauntness of his face his voice, he’s losing weight. It doesn’t look good. It reminded me of my uncle when he beat oral cancer and it came back. He never recovered from that.
Wishing him the best.
Layton’s appearance was, to be quite frank, extremely disturbing. Horrifying. Chris Selley wrote in the Post “I heard someone say `Jesus,’ and then I realized it was me.” That was exactly my reaction. He looked nothing at all like he did two months ago; it was as if someone had Photoshopped him. He’d been heavily made up in an effort to look better than he was, but even then…
He did not look like a sick man.
He looked like a dying man.
That they won’t say what kind of cancer it is is very alarming indeed. I pray I am wrong, but I think Jack Layton is facing something life threatening.
There is one word to describe Jack Layton’s appearance. Cachexia is not good. He looks frail. I hope he can fight cancer like he fights everything else, but I know what I see. Not good.
Second; NDP benifits greatly from Jack’s smiling persona. If he was to firmly step out of the spotlight, I can’t help thinking that the NDP would be losing their best “salesperson.”
I’m sure someone else (most likely Mulcair) would step up and do a good job, but Layton has been the face of the NDP for the past 8 years; slowing building up the party each election. His departure as leader could end up as badly for the NDP as Ed Broadbent’s departure did. The Bloc might not be dead…
If Thomas Mulcair is one tenth the leader Jack Layton is, I would be absolutely shocked. Mulcair is a very good gadfly; he would be an atrocious leader.
The NDP makes itself harder to lead than the other parties do by virtue of the way it’s organized, as a sort of Frankenparty of provincial parties and special interest groups who don’t necessarily share the same vision or are even necessarily wholly committed to the fate of the federal NDP. Layton’s skill in keeping the NDP from totally imploding after 2003 cannot be overstated. In terms of how much he has helped his party his accomplishments are genuinely amazing, and indeed were pretty impressive even before this year’s election.
Jack Layton dead at 61.
RIP Jack. Boy, that was quick.
So sad. I had so much respect for Jack Layton, and cancer is such a horrible disease. I guess in a way we can be glad it was quick, but 61 is too young to die.
Nycole Turmel did very good work on labour, social and environmental issues in the past, and she helped significantly at the NDP convention at which Jack Layton was first elected leader. Mr. Layton had her appointed interim NDP when he had to set aside earlier this summer due to his failing health.
Ms. Turmel was a card carrying member of federal and provincial separatist parties, the Bloc Québécois and Québec solidaire, until this year.
I was surprised that she was not replaced in her role as interim party leader when her full background came to light. I hope that the NDP immediately replaces her now that Mr. Layton has passed away. I am very concerned that should she be sworn in as the Leader of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition, the alienation of voters outside of Québec will be irreparable prior to the next election.
What say ye on this issue?
Well, now that Jack is gone, I presume that there’s going to be a leadership in race in the next few months, though his now mythical endorsement is probably going to vault Turmel into (at least one of) the front-runner position(s).
I don’t think so. An interim leader is just that. The race will be between deputy leaders Thomas Mulcair and Libby Davies.
It doesn’t bother me that much. It’s not like politicians haven’t changed their views and roles over the course of their careers before, and given how recently she signed up as a member of those two parties, I’d buy that it was done in support as a friend and as an opportunity to perhaps take part in events/dinners/conventions in order to meet other politicians/etc (in other words, to advance her career, not necessarily to support a given political position).
I guess I just don’t think it’s worse than a lot of other politicians’ “skeletons” and I think what matters more is what people do now rather than what they’ve done in the past. Though I think when it comes to politicians, perhaps that’s giving people way too much credit. I’ve often felt that people who want to be politicians shouldn’t be allowed to be! In any case, I very much doubt Turmel could turn the NDP into the Bloc, Part Deux even if she wanted to, so I say give her a chance to represent her party and see where it goes. She hasn’t actually done anything wrong.
I agree that Mulcair seems to be the “popular” choice for next official leader. I admit to not really having an opinion on pretty much anyone’s chances. I’m rather out of touch with what’s going on these past couple of months.
Oh - RIP Jack Layton, indeed.
That was a great surprise this morning. 
Well, maybe Jack will be having a few good conversations with my grandfather…
…with my cat curled up in his lap. She died last year, but I swear whenever Jack Layton came on TV in a commercial or interview, she’d sit up and stare intently at the TV like he was the most interesting thing in the world. Back in Ontario in a guaranteed Conservative riding, I once voted NDP because of the cat! She was his biggest fan!
Oh please. Nycole Turmel is a French-speaking left-winger in Quebec. What party do you want her to join? (Or rather, did you want her to join before recently?) Especially when it comes to Québec solidaire, which is technically sovereigntist only in the sense that the vast majority of Quebec francophone left-wingers are sovereigntist. They don’t intend to do anything about independence, but they’re the only really left-wing party in Quebec. (Too left-wing for my tastes, I must say.)
But even for the Bloc… before the NDP managed to make a breakthrough in Quebec, it was the only left-wing federal option that was at least slightly nationalistic. And it’s not like other former Bloc MPs haven’t joined other parties before. (I was pleased when I saw, in response to Stéphane Dion’s letter lambasting Turmel, which was published in Le Devoir, someone respond “Jean C. Lapierre, anyone?”)
Well, from what I hear coming from English Canada, both on this board and elsewhere, the assermentation of anybody from Quebec, or even ever so slightly sympathetic to the existence of Quebec, as opposition leader will cause irreparable alienation of voters outside of it.
I feel that I belong to a people that is so despised by the rest of the country that I don’t know where this will end.
But this said, the death of Jack Layton, while predictable, is tragic. It will definitely change Canadian politics, in the sense that for many months the official opposition will not be able to work as well, and it’s questionable whether the party will be able to hold itself to the level where it is now. For now I don’t really see anybody in the caucus, inexperimented as it is, who can replace Layton.
Does it make you feel any better that every Prime Minister of Canada for the past 30 years save Kim Campbell and Stephen Harper was from Quebec?
Let put forth a hypothetical where an Anglo-Montrealer was leader of the PLQ, but was also a card caring member of a…Montreal separatist group (not perfect, but let me have this space) do you expect such a person to appeal to the majority Quebeckers?
This hypothetical person might look at their past support as merely one of convenience, but it would be a hard sell (especially if they were **also **a rookie MP unknown outside of Montreal) to prospective PLQ voters in the rest of the province…
Please don’t assume that this resistance to Nycole Turmel would equal to Quebeckers being “despised by the rest of the country.” That is going into hyperbole.
Do what our own MattMCL did, and run for NDP.
You forgot about John Turner.
Nycole Turmel has been a member of the NDP since 1991. It was only in December 2006 that she took out a membership in the Bloc Québécois, and that was only to support her friend, Carole Lavallée, a candidate.
