Farewell, Jack Layton

Agent 2 wonders when Walt is going to say something "splenderiferous" about Jack Layton. Mr. Layton, sometimes known as "Taliban Jack" or (more recently) "Bon Jack", was the leader of Canada's pinkish New Democractic Party. He led the NDP to its best-ever showing in the May federal elections, thus becoming Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition. He passed away on Sunday after a terrible and very public battle with cancer.

Jack Layton was one of those rare politicians who seemed always to have plenty of convictions (meaning "beliefs" or "principles") and the courage to stand by them, rather than changing with the fashion of the times. In this he was the opposite of the (perhaps mythical) Irish senator who said, "Those are the principles on which I stand. If yez don't like them, I've got others."

Layton was also extremely well-liked, not just within his own party but by those, including Walt, who would have had little or nothing to do with his "social democractic" principles. Thus his "orange crush" sweep of Québec in May was more a vote for "Bon Jack" than for the NDP candidates or the platform on which they ran.

Some pundits have been quick to suggest that Layton's death will do no permanent damage to the cause of the left, or "progressivism", in Canadian politics. Why? Because the undoubted respect people had for Layton must translate to respect for the principles he espoused. Walt says not.

Nor is it good logic to say that one must respect a man because of his principles and his unswerving belief in them. If that were true, one would have to respect the likes of such extremely principled men as Mao, Stalin, Hitler, or Mussolini.

So... Walt bids ave atque vale to Jack Layton. He'll be missed by all Canadians. Not so his principles.

Jeffrey Simpson, writing in the Globe and Mail, has a good analysis of the likely impact of Jack Layton's death: "NDP’s future is unclear without Layton". He concludes with these words: "As Ted once said of his brother Robert F. Kennedy, so it might be said of Mr. Layton – that he saw wrong and tried to right it, and saw injustice and tried to heal it."