Jack Layton, leader of the opposition dies at 61

Jack was actually an activist before then.

Story time! From a half remembered Macleans article:

He used to be the leader (forget the actual term) of a youth yacht club. They used to do dances and the like for members, the problem being that poor kids couldn't attend because obviously they weren't members. So Jack dug through the policy books, finding that each member could invite non-members to special events, it did not specify the number of friends you could bring, so Jack invited the entire town.

The next day he caught shit from the people running the club so he decided to quit.

So yeah, he's always been an activist.

edited 22nd Aug '11 11:55:44 PM by thatguythere47

No, I mean did he ever have to work a real job before he became a professor? That's important to me in a politician.

I have a specific hatred of people who don't get employed for the first time until they graduate college after several years.

Look, Jack Layton was an activist, an academic and a politician. He's been fighting for what believes in all his life to improve the lives of the lower and middle class working families, never lied and was an honest man. He didn't care what his gains were in the polls. He didn't miss any of his parliamentary duties, heck the only time he ever missed parliamentary sessions was due to medical reasons. He's got clean campaign, he's got clean funding and he's an extremely well respected person.

And some of you are hitting quite the pet peeve of my own

• He knew four languages, sorry if half your politicians barely speak one
• He didn't spend his time catering to lobbyists, megacorps and other bullcrap, sorry if all of your politicians do that but you still vote for them because you're unwilling to shake the two-party system
• He's an academic, a professor, with a Ph D, sorry if most of your leaders barely can read a book let alone have a bachelor's degree but you'd still vote for someone who dropped outta high school
• He didn't "work" a real job as you people seem to put it, sorry if he's not some corrupt corporate exec flush with millions of dollars or some other kind of rich man's lackey
• He's a politician that does what he is supposed to do, have principles, act on them and craft intelligent policy based on science and empirical evidence rather than some baseless ideology, sorry if none of your politicians are capable of doing anything more than demagoguery

edited 23rd Aug '11 7:36:01 AM by breadloaf

I pretty much agree with that... and this is coming from someone who (federally anyway) who is a supporter of the Liberals.

I haven't heard anything about the man until now but, if what you're saying is true, it's a pity that Canada and the world lost an honest politician. Unfortunately, they are way too rare these days.

Last election, I voted Green because I liked everything in their platform except a large portion of their environmental policy (irony?). But hey, if Canadians of different political spectrums can get together and not complain about a guy, it's saying something.

Anyway, while Jack Layton never got the chance, he was pushing for home care, pharma care and preventative medicine to improve our healthcare system. For anybody here, who doesn't know, this is the party that introduced universal healthcare in Canada. So the "third" parties do, in fact, matter a lot.

edited 23rd Aug '11 8:27:03 AM by breadloaf

IIRC he chose someone else to take his place, (I forget who, though) and I'd like to think he had good judgment on who to choose.

I take offense to your hatred towards me, Barkey.

Barkey's quote, modified to be more accurate.

Well... I guess Canada should feel sorry. Sounds like a nice enough guy. And, breadloaf, an office job isn't a "real" job, in this context, so being a lackey of the Corrupt Corporate Executive machine isn't what we're talking about

Not a real job, eh?

Not in particular, no. The nobility of labor and all that jazz.

I didn't say I entirely agreed. That's just the logic...

Work is about responsibility. If you have a job that has responsibilities (and granted, not all jobs have responsibility-some are basically just being paid by one's wealthy parents for tax reasons or what have you), then it counts.

I don't know. This guy sounds pretty good. I'm calling Citation Needed on breadloaf's "he never lied" statement, because statesmen and politician both lie by contractual obligation, but otherwise...

RIP, I guess. Didn't know you, Mr. Layton, but you sound decent enough...

edited 23rd Aug '11 12:26:57 PM by USAF713

I learned yesterday afternoon. Fuck, fuck fuck.

This is more important then Stephen Harper dying. Now the Conservatives have no one to oppose them.

If I wasn't more of a Liberal guy I'd use a memorial avatar.

edited 23rd Aug '11 11:38:38 AM by Erock

@Erock

Hm, if you don't mind me asking, which party were you in support of because I completely forget.

@ USAF

As for "never lied", I probably can't get a citation. It'd probably be fairly accurate to say that when he pushed a particular platform, he stuck to it unless he had good reason to change his opinion (like say evidence pointing to a different decision being superior).

It's more that, Jack Layton was a good man and he died of cancer which sucks. I realise that the general opinion of politicians in general, in the USA, is very low but I would appreciate if instead of knee jerk anti-politician jokes, that some of the tropers actually try to know who they're talking about first. I wouldn't mind it so much if the people bashing him actually had a reason to dislike him greatly but they don't, and there's nitpicking of the strangest facts of his life to lower his stature. For instance, that he never "worked a real job" but being a professor is a real job.

I guess you were trying to explain the concept of having to work labour or something, or hold great responsibility in some corporate position. I can understand that even if I completely disagree. It seems more like shooting yourself in the foot. I see an honest politician, I take it. I don't care he never ran a million dollar company or didn't lift steel for a living, it makes no difference when it comes to pushing good policy.

Here's my analogy of the day. This is like a bunch of Canadians running in, upon hearing George Washington died, and saying completely ignorant negative things about him.

I support the Liberals.

Ah, I usually vote between libs, ndp and greens. My riding usually goes ndp so I feel fairly safe throwing my vote anywhere I feel like so that I can give my $2 to the party i like the most.

Tories haven't had a good platform for a long time, and now that the neocons took them over, I feel it's rather pointless to ever vote for them for many more years.

edited 23rd Aug '11 12:29:10 PM by breadloaf

Bleh... I wouldn't be surprised, though. Nobody cares about American history except for Americans.

Well in any case, in your dictionary, you'd call him a statesman. The replacement for him is a strange. She was what is known as a "backbencher" (basically a low media face-time Member of Parliament). She was previously part of Quebec Sovereignty and then later on Bloc Quebecois and now she joined the NDP. So, as far as I can tell, her track record is clean, she's a good politician and she was largely unsuccessful because she didn't engage in crazy politicking.

Right now the Tories are trying to character assassinate her by painting her as a secret separatist, as if she could suddenly pop out and go "Ah ha, Quebec is free now! Vive le quebec libre!". Anyway, if Jack Layton trusted her as interim leader then she is good enough for at least being an interim leader.

The politics are totally screwed now with Jack gone. The Liberals have no leadership as of right now. The NDP leader just died. The Greens only hold one seat. Harper might as well be crowned Emperor at this point.

Okay, Breadloaf, Jack Layton wasn't that important.

Well, he's certainly not Tommy Douglas but I don't like people bashing a guy for no reason.

Ew. Independent Quebec. One of the strangest ideas I've ever heard, right after the "51st State" concept in Britain...

Yeah... not exactly a great track record on that for her. But she'll only be interim leader, so it won't hurt the NDP in general elections in... 2015 (I think).

The NDP is going to have to pull its act together if it wants to hold Quebec. The entire province is fickle as Hell...

But I am worried that the NDP and Liberals have split the center/left vote too much, guaranteeing Harper and his Tory minions at least a minority in every election cycle until that changes...

edited 23rd Aug '11 1:20:37 PM by Rationalinsanity

Yeah, it's a real problem with FPTP.