Jack Layton embodied the politics he wanted to see and that is what made him so successful say those that knew the charismatic leader well.
“When you know the man and you know the politician you realize they are the same,” said Karl Belanger, Layton’s press secretary of eight years. “Politics was his life and his life is politics.”
Layton’s life ended early Monday morning, succumbing to a second bout of cancer.
In life, Layton used his energy and charisma to reinvigorate Canada’s populist, left-wing political party – a party that is now mourning the man who thrust it into the benches of the official opposition for the first time in history.
When Layton became leader of the NDP in 2003 the party was languishing in the House of Commons with just 13 members.
In just seven years, Layton made history as the party won 103 seats, enough to become the first NDP official opposition.
“He was able to build the party to the point that we were able to go for government,” his long-time chief of staff Anne McGrath said, adding that he put in place concrete policy proposals and vision that Canadians could embrace.
That vision and the determination that propelled it is what drew in Karl Belanger, Layton’s press secretary, eight years ago.
“He has changed the way poltics is being done. He has brought a message of hope and optimism,” he said. “That’s why people came to his side and to support him in the past few years.”
“He shared their values and ambition for their families and he was as comfortable negotiating with Prime Ministers as he was in a homeless shelter talking to folks who are suffering,” Belanger says.
Canadians lost the most exciting political leader in a generation, according to Claude Denis, a political scientist at the University of Ottawa, who says Layton showed politics could be constructive.
“They could see in Layton an optimism and hope and a sense that there was something to do with this country,” he said. “He was perceived as a man who was happy with life and happy with his life in politics with a sense of serving Canadians and people connected with that.”
Even Prime Minister Stephen Harper recognized the hybrid that shaped Layton’s life.
“Jack Layton will be remembered for the force of his personality,” Harper told reporters on Parliament Hill on Monday. “We have all lost an engaging personality and a man of strong principles.
Harper said he and Layton, both musicians, planned to jam together.
“I will always regret the jam session that never was,” he said. “That is a reminder that we must always make time for friends, family and loved ones while we still can.”
A planned jam session with a political opponents seems evidence of another trait that colleagues says was part of his personality and politics.
“One of the things about Jack that I think is part of his legacy is his ability to reach across and touch people, even with people with different political views from him,” said McGrath. “He was very principled in his opposition but not personal in his opposition to others.”
The ability to connect across the diversity that shapes Canadian society was evidenced in the election results of 2011, says Denis.
Layton’s party won seats across Canada and decimated the sovereigntist Bloc Quebecois in Quebec.
“Canadians have lost something that was starting to take shape in the New NDP and that was a leader who was able to connect Canadians across the country including Quebec,” Denis said.
Linda Duncan, an NDP MP from Edmonton, said she joined the party because of Layton’s focus on connecting with communities.
“It resonated with me,” she said. “I felt he was a new kind of leader who was very grassroots and gave attention to the issues on the ground people cared about.
Eight years ago, people would say an NDP government isn’t possible, Belanger says, but Layton was always the guy saying, “it can be done.”
He took the same attitude when he was diagnosed with a second type of cancer after the spring election, saying that he was going to fight the cancer now so he could be back to fight for Canadians in the fall.”
Layton had won a battled with prostrate cancer in 2010 and broke his hip in earlier 2011, but went on to fight an election campaign that spring.
“We saw that the more people knew him, the more they liked him and the more they were willing to listen to some of his ideas,” McGrath said.
Layton’s political vision was complemented by a pragmatism that made it achievable say party insiders.
“What Jack Layton did with the party is to transform it into a modern political force, a political entity that is ready to govern in four and a half years,” Belanger says.
Toronto NDP MP Peggy Nash said Layton made significant changes in the party; purchasing a national building, adopting modern communications, and recruiting experienced staffers and candidates.
Layton has taken the NDP as far as he can, and in doing so, Belanger said Layton will be remembered for spending everything he could to forward the politics he embodied.
“The question will always remain what if Jack Layton became Prime Minister of Canada?,” he said. “We will never get a chance to find out. Whatever happens next Jack Layton has changed this country with all the influence he could muster and all the will he had.”
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