33 quently undisciplined national party The Life leader, to transformative political icon. Lavigne offers two essential lessons for students of politics, as it and Death is lived, not taught. The first is that over-reach and risk-taking are essen- of a Canadian tial for underdogs. The second is that the disasters that will flow from such Political Icon a strategy offer the important lessons to build on. Brad Lavigne Lavigne describes Layton’s masterful courtship of Thomas Mulcair, over Building the Orange Wave: nearly two years, for example. Us- The Inside Story Behind the ing carefully chosen restaurants and Historic Rise of and Olivia Chow’s outreach to Muclair’s the NDP. : Douglas & smart psychologist wife, Catherine, McIntyre, 2013. and with a recurring cycle of pressure and promises, Layton achieved what no other CCF/NDP leader had done since the recruitment of Robert Cli- che half a century earlier. He landed a powerful Quebec figure as the face of the party in the province that was perennially its political wasteland, ex- a committed partisan. He delivers and cepting only the brief beachhead es- defends a strong social democratic vi- tablished in 1991 when Phil Edmun- sion for Canada. He is, at the same ston won a byelection on the South time, often brutally critical of his and Shore of Montreal. The recruitment of Layton’s gaffes, demonstrating a can- Mulcair, and his victory in the 2007 dor and self-awareness notably absent Outremont by election, set the stage from some of season’s other political for all that followed in the 2011 cam- offerings. paign in Quebec. Lavigne is brutal about how amateur- Lavigne is insightful and admiring at ish was Layton’s first national cam- the same time about his former boss Review by Robin V. Sears paign as leader, and how painful were and political hero. He acknowledges the post-mortems of such a gaffe-filled the disastrous bungling of Layton’s fiasco. He is hard, as well, on Layton’s claim that Paul Martin was respon- merican political junkies can slowly acquired discipline in nation- sible for homeless deaths, laying the A feed their habit with a book a al politics, and how he eventually blame squarely at Layton’s feet. He month quite reliably all year long. learned that every microphone is not recounts his painful role in executing Canadians interested in more than your friend. He cites the many exam- a humiliating flip-flop on allowing the Twitterverse’s view of our politics ples of the hair-pulling risks and over- Stéphane Dion’s Green ally, Elizabeth go hungry for long periods at a time. reaching that were a mark of Layton’s May, to be given equal status in the This year, however, Canadian authors style until the very end. 2008 leaders’ debates. He makes clear and publishers have produced half a he thought it was a mistake, but one dozen new books for politics-starved he loyally defended on TV panels for readers. Brad Lavigne, who rode alongside Jack Layton on days afterward. Of those that will stand the test of his path from becalmed But it is the final third of the book, his time, Brad Lavigne, who rode along- Toronto city politician to account of Layton’s triumphant 2011 side Jack Layton on his path from be- campaign and its tragic aftermath, calmed Toronto city politician to be- beloved national leader over that makes this a compelling must- loved national leader over the course the course of a decade, has read. Lavigne has an advantage in that of a decade, has provided a great in- provided a great insider’s every reader knows how unfair, almost sider’s account of that improbable account of that improbable Shakespearean was Layton’s end. So, journey. journey. as with Kennedy, or Martin Luther King, or any political figure cut down avigne’s recounting of the near at a moment of triumph, their weak- L death and spectacular rebirth e slowly and gracefully builds his nesses fade, and the power of their of the NDP, “Building the Orange H arc of the narrative of Layton’s legacy is forever buttressed by the trag- Wave,” is far from an even-handed ac- career from over-eager Toronto mu- edy of their death. We don’t remem- count of national politics. He remains nicipal activist, to energetic but fre- ber Kennedy’s failure to have achieved

November/December 2013 34 a single important piece of civil rights improbable capture of the NDP lead- legislation, we remember his “Ask ership to planning his funeral only not...” inauguration eloquence. We nine years later, will make some New will always celebrate King’s magnifi- Democrats squirm. He also conveys cent dream, and not his sagging for- a respect for the professionalism and tunes at the time of his passing. discipline of the Harper team’s ap- proach to political street fighting, imilarly, Jack Layton’s majes- nesting several delightful anecdotes Stic dying message to the Canadi- in his tale about secret exchanges be- an people and the courage of his final tween he and a series of Harper opera- tives on campaign craft. days have already caused memories of his early failures to fade. Lavigne de- The inevitable temptation for politi- scribes in painful detail the role that cal journalists and the punditocracy he, Anne McGrath, Kathleen Monk is to declare, post-facto, every politi- and played in those days. cal fate, every election result, as pre- That exceptional and powerful team dictable, even inevitable. That they of advisers and loyalists that Jack had survive such silly claims despite hav- drawn to him supported Olivia Chow ing argued something completely and their leader as they chose an in- different only weeks before is the terim leader, polished his final mes- product of what my journalist father sage into a powerful rhetorical legacy, —longtime reporter Val and produced his elegant and uplift- Sears—describes as “the secret of jour- ing funeral. nalistic and political success: short Partisans of other political tribes may memories.” complain that Lavigne is too parti It was not inevitable that Jack Layton pris to offer useful insights into one would become the leader of the NDP; of Canada’s most tragic political sto- he was an outsider held in consider- Framed and ries—leader cut down only weeks after able contempt by many important his greatest political success. Lavigne party elders. Nor was it inevitable that Forsaken: is especially eloquent on the pain of he would succeed in rebuilding the those months in the spring and sum- party that had sunk to single digits in mer of 2011 among those who had the polls. Minority parties that slide Michael been with Layton on his quest to re- that far are literally one election from build social democracy in Canada. extinction, viz. Progressives, Social Ignatieff’s Many Liberals will be unhappy with Credit, the Saskatchewan Liberal Party. his characterization of their role in Take on Life the collapse of the Martin govern- Not only was it not inevitable, it is ment in November 2005. Others will still astonishing that Layton was able quibble about the rights and wrongs wipe the Bloc Québécois from the po- and Death of the failed 2008 parliamentary coup litical map in one fell swoop, to seize and coalition campaign. the Official Opposition and propel in Politics the NDP from a distant fourth party It is the final third of the to government-in-waiting in less than book, his account of Layton’s 10 years. Michael Ignatieff triumphant 2011 campaign Lavigne does not yet have the craft of and its tragic aftermath, great political journalists. But he does Fire and Ashes: Success and Failure that makes this a compelling share their keen eye for the hinge in Politics. Toronto: Random House moments in politics, those rare occa- Canada, 2013. must-read. Lavigne has an sions when luck and strategy combine advantage in that every to generate a political wave, and the Review by Patrick Gossage reader knows how unfair, mastery and guts required to success- almost Shakespearean was fully ride it to victory. He does future Layton’s end. political activists, and all Canadian uring the early days of Michael political junkies, great service in de- D Ignatieff’s putative run to be scribing with passion and in clinical leader of the Liberal Party in 2006 I detail how the Layton team turned was summoned by two of the three avigne makes no pretense of neu- the improbable into the “inevitable” “men in black” who had journeyed to L trality, but his harsh judgments Orange Wave. Cambridge to persuade him to enter of the tactical and strategic failures of Contributing Writer Robin V. Sears was Canadian politics. They were Ian Dav- several key chapters in that fascinat- national director of the NDP during the ey, a handsome young filmmaker and ing decade, from planning Layton’s Broadbent years. [email protected] advertising guy, the son of the famous

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