A Genuine Loss

Regardless of your political leanings, Jack Layton's death is a sincere loss. Whether you agreed with him or not, he dedicated his life to something he cared about--making Canada a country of greater equality, justice, and opportunity. His death will not only mean a massive shift for the NDP as the current opposition, but a change in the future of the party as well. It's easy to get tied down in the intense opinions that encircle politics, but ultimately it's important to remember that he was a father of two who refused to be apathetic about his country. My heart goes out to his family, friends, and all his other supporters.

Here is the letter he wrote two days before his death:

Dear Friends,

Tens of thousands of Canadians have written to me in recent weeks to wish me well. I want to thank each and every one of you for your thoughtful, inspiring and often beautiful notes, cards and gifts. Your spirit and love have lit up my home, my spirit, and my determination.

Unfortunately my treatment has not worked out as I hoped. So I am giving this letter to my partner Olivia to share with you in the circumstance in which I cannot continue.

I recommend that Hull-Aylmer MP Nycole Turmel continue her work as our interim leader until a permanent successor is elected.

I recommend the party hold a leadership vote as early as possible in the New Year, on approximately the same timelines as in 2003, so that our new leader has ample time to reconsolidate our team, renew our party and our program, and move forward towards the next election.

A few additional thoughts:

To other Canadians who are on journeys to defeat cancer and to live their lives, I say this: please don’t be discouraged that my own journey hasn’t gone as well as I had hoped. You must not lose your own hope. Treatments and therapies have never been better in the face of this disease. You have every reason to be optimistic, determined, and focused on the future. My only other advice is to cherish every moment with those you love at every stage of your journey, as I have done this summer.

To the members of my party: we’ve done remarkable things together in the past eight years. It has been a privilege to lead the New Democratic Party and I am most grateful for your confidence, your support, and the endless hours of volunteer commitment you have devoted to our cause. There will be those who will try to persuade you to give up our cause. But that cause is much bigger than any one leader. Answer them by recommitting with energy and determination to our work. Remember our proud history of social justice, universal health care, public pensions and making sure no one is left behind. Let’s continue to move forward. Let’s demonstrate in everything we do in the four years before us that we are ready to serve our beloved Canada as its next government.

To the members of our parliamentary caucus: I have been privileged to work with each and every one of you. Our caucus meetings were always the highlight of my week. It has been my role to ask a great deal from you. And now I am going to do so again. Canadians will be closely watching you in the months to come. Colleagues, I know you will make the tens of thousands of members of our party proud of you by demonstrating the same seamless teamwork and solidarity that has earned us the confidence of millions of Canadians in the recent election.

To my fellow Quebecers: On May 2nd, you made an historic decision. You decided that the way to replace Canada’s Conservative federal government with something better was by working together in partnership with progressive-minded Canadians across the country. You made the right decision then; it is still the right decision today; and it will be the right decision right through to the next election, when we will succeed, together. You have elected a superb team of New Democrats to Parliament. They are going to be doing remarkable things in the years to come to make this country better for us all.

To young Canadians: All my life I have worked to make things better. Hope and optimism have defined my political career, and I continue to be hopeful and optimistic about Canada. Young people have been a great source of inspiration for me. I have met and talked with so many of you about your dreams, your frustrations, and your ideas for change. More and more, you are engaging in politics because you want to change things for the better. Many of you have placed your trust in our party. 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. There are great challenges before you, from the overwhelming nature of climate change to the unfairness of an economy that excludes so many from our collective wealth, and the changes necessary to build a more inclusive and generous Canada. I believe in you. Your energy, your vision, your passion for justice are exactly what this country needs today. You need to be at the heart of our economy, our political life, and our plans for the present and the future.

And finally, to all Canadians: Canada is a great country, one of the hopes of the world. We can be a better one – a country of greater equality, justice, and opportunity. We can build a prosperous economy and a society that shares its benefits more fairly. We can look after our seniors. We can offer better futures for our children. We can do our part to save the world’s environment. We can restore our good name in the world. We can do all of these things because we finally have a party system at the national level where there are real choices; where your vote matters; where working for change can actually bring about change. In the months and years to come, New Democrats will put a compelling new alternative to you. My colleagues in our party are an impressive, committed team. Give them a careful hearing; consider the alternatives; and consider that we can be a better, fairer, more equal country by working together. Don’t let them tell you it can’t be done.

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.

All my very best,

Jack Layton

On Politics and Love

Current events news flash: Canada just had a federal election! Crazy, huh! Michael news flash: I’m actually incredibly interested in old men bickering! I’ve always known I’m a little obsessed with current events (see my last post), but I didn’t actually realize how into politics I was until this election. Last year I was super bummed because the federal election was on October 14^th, inconveniently exactly one day before I was legal to vote. (That makes me feel really young…weird). I really wish that the one Poli Sci class I took in my first year had been a better experience because I feel like I would have really enjoyed going further into that field. BUT IT’S OK, because that’s what the Internet is for. :)

In order to get a better understanding of who my MP candidates were I attended the “Indecision 2011” event that my university hosted. It was super interesting to say the least. It started off quite unpromisingly with the host asking each of the candidates a generic question about how they were trying to engage the youth vote. The candidates awkwardly attempted to answer how they were each engaged with youth (one candidate mentioned how he was in a youth group when he was a youth… not really sure how that… yeah, ok) but it wasn’t long before people started lining up to ask questions. It became pretty apparent that the audience was going to run the show so the host gave up the floor to the open mics and tried his best just to keep the MPs from rambling.

And man, were there ever some good questions. I was impressed by how many people were informed and passionate about the questions they were asking. Perhaps Internet forums have jaded me but I expected to hear a lot more below the belt remarks and derogatory name-calling.

Let me break the candidates down for you: (Side note: I desperately wish that the Green candidate had been able to make it but apparently she was sick that day. Considering she is a 19-year old first year with blue hair, I was incredibly intrigued to hear her opinions. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be):

On the far right was Mark Sandilands, NDP candidate. At first, I approved of his choice of raunchy wool-knit sweater, until I realized that he was not wearing it ironically. A quick encounter with him before the debate (where he handed me a hand-grip-jar-opening-thingamahinkey—which, I must add, stated “Get a Good Grip on Government, Vote NDP—mmm, delicious) revealed that he had a very vacant stare. He didn’t actually look at me but through me into my soul, so I started off with a bad vibe. But, as the night progressed, his answers proved that he was not as spaced out as I had originally assumed and he did a very good job of stating his position.

On the opposite side of the table, was the Christian Heritage candidate, Geoffrey Capp. He looked exactly as you would expect a Christian Heritage MP to look, basically. He actually did a lot better than I thought he would. Originally I had written this party off as a single-issue fundamentalist group, but the more he spoke the more I was actually impressed with his ideas. Granted, he was able to say a lot of really great things because he will never actually have to hold his promises accountable, but for the most part he was articulate and to the point. He even took on a polite question from a lesbian lady who asked how his party could represent a secular society, and answered it quite gracefully.

To his right was Liberal candidate, Michael Cormican. I actually almost forgot he was at the debate because he didn’t really do anything. He answered almost every question by reading straight from the party’s platform. Props to him for showing up, but I assume he understands that the chances of him getting voted in to a constituency that’s been conservative since the dawn of time is not very likely. He really just spent the vast majority of his time just reveling in the train wreck which was Hillyer.

And that’s exactly what Jim Hillyer, Conservative MP, became. When he began the debate, I was excited because he was the only one who looked even slightly close to my demographic. He was sporting a leather jacket that screamed, “I’m young and relatable! I’ll represent all you university students as I bring your issues to Parliament in my new Suzuki GSX-R1000!” Unfortunately, the hip, cool look only lasted him approximately 15 minutes before he realized that almost everyone in the room was opposed to him. Over the course of two hours his answers degraded from strong promises to weak defenses to ensuring that he was, in fact, not the devil incarnate. Like I said, the questions were informed and appropriate, it was just impossible for one man to defend the errors of essentially the entire parliamentary system.

And that’s where my lesson of the day came in. As the night progressed, it was easy to see that the government makes for a wonderful scapegoat. As citizens, it is incredibly easy—almost expected even—to blame issues in society on the government, but I think we need to give them more credit than we do. After a barrage of particularly biting questions, one man stood up and pointed out that, at some point, we as citizens need to take responsibility ourselves. We can blame the Canadian government for being so irresponsible with regards to the environment, etc., but we have to consider that are just as much a part of the solution as they are. It was hard to hear, but a refreshing change of perspectives.

The man who went up after him was my favourite questioner. He pointed out that Canadian campaign tactics are beginning to degrade to the level of America’s, full of smear campaigns and hate ads. He noticed in particular that NDP and Conservatives were constantly pointing out each others’ flaws. So, in order to counteract this, he insisted that the Conservative candidate say something nice about the NDP, and the NDP candidate say something nice about the Conservatives. I wanted to give that man a hug. It was enlightening to see these 50+ year old men being forced to resort to tactics that my mother used to stop my sister and I from bickering.

I read this wonderful article (shown to me by Kerry Precht) which points out the advantages of a minority government. I’m not going to lie, I’m a little disappointed that the election did not end in a minority government, but I’m praying that the Conservative majority will result in a more efficient government. I don’t intend this to sound trivial and demeaning, but as a whole, I think Canada’s Parliament—citizens included—needs to learn a lesson in cooperation. As a nation that prides itself on its peacekeeping capabilities, our government is not a reflection of this.

After three hours of great discussion, the debate was over. As I was walking home and contemplating everything that I had heard, I noticed that the couple walking in front of me included the lesbian girl who had asked the question. This girl is also in a couple of my classes and we’ve talked before. I listened in on their conversation for a bit and heard them talk about the Christian Heritage party and how all they wanted was to be treated as equals. The more I listened, the more my heavy my heart grew. I felt called to go up and talk to them, so I swallowed my pride and approached them.

After introducing myself as a proud, passionate Christian, I stammered out a sincere apology for any hatred or resentment they may have ever received from the Christian community. After my rambling apology they thanked me and then did something I wasn’t expecting: they apologized for if I had ever felt hated or judged by the queer community. I thanked them and mumbled something else, then uttered a quick goodbye and left.

What a refreshing conversation! As I was walking home I reflected on how much power there is in treating others with love instead of with division. My good friend recently showed me this interview and I couldn’t agree more with what Tony Campolo has to say:

I've already seen a lot of division result because of this election. Regardless of who we voted for in the election, I think it is our very strong duty to support the government that we now have (whether we wanted them or not) with our words and with our prayers.