This is a guest post by Debbie. Debbie is a long time reader of Feministe, and very occasional commenter. She lives in Toronto.
Last week, Canadians awoke to the news that Jack Layton, leader of the federal New Democratic Party had died of cancer.
Throughout his political career, Jack Layton championed progressive and feminist causes, including reproductive rights, pay equity, LGBT rights, affordable housing, improving public transportation, and fairer immigration policies. He was involved in HIV/AIDS activism in the early days of the pandemic in Toronto, co-founded the White Ribbon Campaign, and played an instrumental role in bringing about the Canadian government’s apology to First Nations residential school survivors. Others have done a better and more thorough job of listing his many accomplishments here, here, here, and here.
I was thrilled when the NDP became Canada’s official opposition in May, even though it meant that we had a Conservative majority government. In a global political and economic climate that has left many of us feeling so hopeless, Canadians had voted in record numbers for a political party that opposed corporate tax cuts at the expense of small businesses and social services, supported organized labour, and consistently championed the interests of marginalized people. I don’t think this would have been possible without Jack Layton’s leadership. He was certainly the most well-liked and well-respected politician in Canada, in large part because he listened to people, and made them feel that not only were their voices important, but that change was possible.
In his final letter to Canadians, Jack Layton reminded us that we can do better, becoming “… a country of greater equality, justice, and opportunity.”
He closed with the following:
“My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world.”
Rest in peace, Jack. You will be greatly missed.