Consider these the last words to Canadians from a dying national political leader.
“My friends, love is better than anger,” New Democratic leader Jack Layton wrote as a final paragraph in a “letter to Canadians” barely a day before he died Aug. 22 from cancer.
“Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic and we’ll change the world.”
That optimism and call to action were key to Layton’s incredible success as an NDP leader, taking the party for the first time in its 50-year history to more than 100 House of Commons seats and Parliament’s second largest party.
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He believed after the next election in 2015, he would be prime minister.
We will never know.
The NDP, largely based for the first time on a new and fragile Quebec base of 59 seats, will quickly be plunged into leadership rivalries.
The coalition he built, largely devoid of support from prairie Canada where the NDP was born, could easily unravel.
Yet despite his lack of prairie success, this son of a Montreal Progressive Conservative cabinet minister and a classic denizen of downtown Toronto always paid homage to the CCF/NDP past and the party’s first leader T.C. Douglas.
In almost every e-mail Layton sent to supporters, he included this Douglas quote: “Courage my friends, ’tis never too late to build a better world.”
Layton, battling cancer for years and campaigning for the May 2 election with a cane because of a hip replacement that likely was cancer-related, seemed to personify that optimism.
He maintained the bright outlook even in the days when his party was not exactly on fire.
Although in every election after his 2003 leadership victory, he increased Commons representation.
He proved to be a skillful opposition politician, convincing Liberal prime minister Paul Martin to rewrite his 2005 budget to add some NDP spending priorities as the price of remaining in power.
In 2008 when Conservative Stephen Harper proved less compliant, Layton helped form an opposition coalition that almost brought the government down.
He was relentless in his defence of First Nations, affordable housing, the urban poor and an end to tax breaks for the rich.
Layton’s causes never won the support of a majority of Canadians, but the 30 percent he garnered on May 2 and his displacement of the Liberals as Canada’s second party were major accomplishments in his long political career.
The party will now have to figure out where to go from here, but on his deathbed, Layton urged them to respect the people.
“As my time in political life draws to a close, I want to share with you my belief in your power to change this country and this world,” he said in a portion of his letter aimed at young Canadians.
Challenges include climate change, an economy that leaves too many poor “and the changes necessary to build a more inclusive and generous Canada.”
In the end, it was not about him. “I believe in you,” he said in his last
message to young people. “Your energy, your vision, your passion for justice are exactly what this country needs today.”
Whatever the political affiliation of the young, may it be so.
