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OCTOBER 2011.Qxd LE BON JACK Robin V. Sears In this poignant appreciation of Jack Layton, his friend Robin Sears considers the impact of the NDP leader’s death on Canadians, who mourned not the politician so much as the man. They were touched by his gallant campaign, of which his cane became the symbol, as well the grace and bravery he showed in his final illness over the summer. “As a cancer survivor,” Sears writes, “he gave courage and comfort to millions of Canadian families waging the same struggle.” As for his political legacy, he took the NDP from the fourth party in the House to Official Opposition, crushing the separatist Bloc Québécois in the process, “giving Quebecers a powerful new federalist choice.” 1950-2011 Dans ce vibrant hommage à son ami Jack Layton, Robin Sears observe l’effet de la disparition du chef du NPD sur les Canadiens, qui ont pleuré la perte de l’homme plus que du leader politique. Car ils ont été touchés par la classe avec laquelle il a fait campagne, appuyé sur cette canne devenue un symbole, autant que par la force et la dignité dont il a fait preuve en cette fin d’été où il se savait condamné. « Ce survivant du cancer a inspiré courage et réconfort aux millions de familles canadiennes qui vivent le même combat », écrit-il. Pour ce qui est de son héritage politique, il aura propulsé le quatrième parti de la Chambre des communes au rang d’opposition officielle, laminant au passage les indépendantistes du Bloc québécois et « offrant aux Québécois une nouvelle et solide option fédéraliste ». trong leaders deny or disguise their disease and dis- sometimes mawkish displays of love and admiration, he ability. Roman emperors and English kings did it. pointed out, were a testament not to Jack as a politician, or S Roosevelt and Churchill did it. So did John Kennedy even to Jack as a compelling leader in the fight for social jus- and even Tommy Douglas. As recently as the 1980s, David tice, though those were important parts of the outpouring. Lewis insisted for years that his spreading cancer not be They were a tribute to a man who publicly flaunted his revealed beyond a tight family circle. final battle with several cancers, who painfully limped, then Whether it is the disfigurement of polio in Roosevelt’s and hobbled, then hopped, and finally ran across the finish line Douglas’ cases, or the depression and despair that led Churchill in the triumphant electoral victory of his life, cane bran- to drink prodigiously, or the agony of deep back pain that led dished on election night as he saluted his supporters, only Kennedy to consume daily a powerful cocktail of painkillers to have that victory snatched from him weeks later. The best and barbiturates, the reason for leaders’ public deceit is always story and the best storyteller always win in politics. Jack’s the same: illness is weakness, weakness invites attack. was epic by any standard. At least in Canada, that will never happen again. It was a moment that stunned the nation. Despite the Jack Layton’s celebration of life in the face of death dreadful gaunt visage Canadians had witnessed only weeks bequeathed us this transformation in our politics as his final before, no one was prepared for the shocking news early on a legacy. It will be among the most important of his achievements normally sleepy summer Monday morning. Skeptics, ignorant to those who struggle to survive cancer or other medical curses of the necessary armour of a battle against a powerful disease, and to live lives of meaning and fulfillment at the same time. muttered that he must have known, that he should have told The instant cliché of his cane brandished in defiance, not Canadians that he was dying. One hopes, when faced with the disability, and the cartoons and photos of that bravado now same existential nightmare, they come to understand that flooding the Internet will live as proof of the triumph of, as he however long the odds, no one who cheats cancer by living a said, “hope over fear.” One can almost hear, years from now, meaningful life ever admits defeat, or even its prospect. a partner or a physiotherapist imploring a deflated stroke vic- Despite insistent pressure from the media, he refused to tim to “Think of Jack” as an appeal against surrender. discuss the new cancer that had hit him. Olivia Chow was Andrew Coyne was the first to frame this power behind equally determined after his death, saying that Jack did not Canada’s almost universal emotional eruption, in an elegant want every prostate survivor to think that his would be their elegy in Maclean’s. The explosion of grief and then the fate as well. 8 OPTIONS POLITIQUES OCTOBRE 2011 Le bon Jack Two decades earlier, as a busy inated the national news agenda for ery of government to prepare a state Toronto politician, Jack had accompa- days, with spontaneous displays of funeral. It was a gracious and bold deci- nied his father to his Toronto prostate mourning in cities across the country, sion. Despite some muttering among surgeon on many visits over several culminating in a controversial state his own colleagues and some astonish- years. As the now internationally funeral watched by millions of ingly graceless commentary among a famous surgeon, ironically counsellor Canadians. Those powerful images few predictable pundits, it showed both to both father and son in their cancer and memories will be slow to fade. statesmanship and adroit political skill. battles, said, “In all my years of family Reporters covering the 1980 Carter- Imagine the reaction if, on seeing visits I have rarely seen a man play the Reagan campaign travelling through the outpouring of grief that swept many Canadians, the Prime Jack Layton’s celebration of life in the face of death Minister had done what bequeathed us this transformation in our politics as his final anal bureaucrats in the pro- legacy. It will be among the most important of his tocol section of Heritage Canada and tradition achievements to those who struggle to survive cancer or would have prescribed, and other medical curses and to live lives of meaning and simply said no to the public fulfillment at the same time. call for a grand celebration. It would have become role of care guardian. It is always small towns in West Virginia were aston- another example of the harsh partisan women who accompany my patients. ished to find on kitchen walls faded pic- edge with which he is usually lashed. It made an early impression on me tures of Jack Kennedy. Nearly two Curiously, Harper has shown a about Jack.” Layton’s early exposure to decades after his sudden death, Kennedy similar compassion and sensitive the painful nightmare of a long battle remained an icon for many Americans, a antennae in a number of other cases, with cancer — his father’s lasted a sad memory of what might have been. but has usually chosen to keep his role decade — made him keenly aware of Pierre Trudeau remains a political lode- a secret. He has intervened behind the the debilitating myths and stereotyp- stone for many Canadian Liberals a scenes to overturn bureaucrats’ and ing surrounding cancer care. decade after his death and a generation even security officials’ recommenda- Talking to other cancer survivors after he left office. tions where a more sensitive approach in private, Jack would say, “You can’t Jack Layton will not have that to Canadian families in distress was just tell people ‘not to worry,’ or ‘pre- same gravitational pull 20 years from called for. pare to die in six months.’ You can’t now, but like John Diefenbaker and expect everyone to be able to carry on Tommy Douglas, he has already been he grace was widely recognized or tell others they should just quit. admitted to the very small club of T and praised, except in a few cases You just have to give everyone sup- politicians that most Canadians of of deliberate insult, a sad product of port for the way they choose to fight every political conviction remember the cynical armour that some journal- this battle. For me, I am a fighter…to with affection and respect. Reporters in ists and politicians grow to shield the end.” small towns in Quebec will, I suspect, themselves from life’s disappoint- find faded copies of Pat Corrigan’s ments; theirs is a bitterness that gener- t had never happened before — not powerful image of Jack on a bike, flag ates sarcastic sneers about death. I in Canada, nor in any modern flying behind while riding into the Layton, who often delighted in biting democracy. A leader at the height of sunset, several elections from now. public and private self-deprecation, his career, struck down within weeks The transformation from politi- would merely have chuckled at their of his greatest political triumph, but cian reasonably well liked to political vulgarity. not before he could carefully lay out sainthood was, in Layton’s case, sud- The Prime Minister endured, with his political will to his family and den, stunning and unheard of in the occasional wry grimace, the hor- political allies. His political legacy, Canadian politics. Tommy Douglas tatory rhetoric of Stephen Lewis at therefore, will last longer and be an moved into the small pantheon of the the funeral. He stood and clapped — invisible hand guiding his party, its permanently blessed slowly, over sev- requiring some of his even more caucus and its supporters more direct- eral decades.
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