Jack layton was in it more for people than for himself Ottawa ottawa was a sweat bath the day jack layton announced he wanted to be ndp leader, back in 2002.And after the formalities were done, we returned to my modest, air conditioning free apartment a few blocks from parliament hill so he could do a long list of interviews. Most of these were done semi nude, i discovered, glancing up to see most of jack’s clothes piled on my couch and him holding court, phone in hand, on my balcony.Looking back, it’s fitting his lack of airs were on such full display:He was the real deal. Those experts who weren’t asking why he would want to win were confidently predicting he would lose.But jack would have none of it.So he did what so many miss today:He got out and infected as many people as possible with his relentless optimism and faith that just because something hadn’t happened yet didn’t mean it couldn’t.He won on the first ballot. Our only fight came in a blues bar in ottawa’s byward market about two days after he became leader.He asked how many seats the ndp would win in the next election.I said 25, almost twice as many as they had then, but jack saw this as defeatism. “Think bigger,”He said, before telling his favourite sports story.You might think this involved the montreal canadiens, but it was actually about water polo. “Politics is like water polo.Stay calm on the surface, work underwater where they can’t see you and then kick hard. ” Many politicians might think the point of kicking harder was for them, but not jack.And the loss we feel today is because we know there was at least one politician in it more for people than himself. I first realized this walking into his house with him once.I remember being taken aback that there was a community meeting in his living room.Jack took it in stride.As one does, he had given out keys to his house so people had a place to organize. His belief in people and their power to change things was unshakable.Anyone and everyone http://www.victan.co.uk/ could reach his blackberry in those early days, and most mornings their suggestions were enthusiastically passed along.If there was a problem, jack wanted to fix it. Once, he was giving a major speech on health care.But he had just returned from a first nations community with squalid living conditions and wanted the speech to be about that, too.It was a rambling, disjointed speech but jack polo ralph lauren outlet didn’t care.He was determined the blue chip audience would hear about the true misery he’d seen. This is what we miss today as well. Because whether you’re a doctor from abroad driving a taxi, a blue collar worker looking for a job, an aboriginal community living in shacks or a newly married gay couple, the affection jack had for you couldn’t be faked. In the nine years since that soupy day when he set out to change canadian politics, much has changed.I was lucky to be there for some of it, but this is not time to remember leadership wins, new budgets, ever larger caucuses or a viable chance to finally get politics that work better for more people. For me, it’s a chance to remember the laugh after giving a speech with his neck half cocked because one of the teleprompter screens was put on backwards.To recall the guy who carried my suitcase into the hotel for me after i’d fallen asleep on the campaign bus.And to relive the constant flurry of emails at all hours from an ‘energizer bunny’ of a politician who always believed things could get better. An hour after jack passed away, a friend texted me after getting out of an elevator.He said that people were visibly saddened, that this wasn’t about another public figure but something more personal. He’s right.But the contagious humanity that let jack take the ndp to new heights doesn’t have to depart as unfairly as he did.It could be passed on, in the kind of change that he always believed was possible. Jamey heath was jack layton’s communications director from 2002 to 2006. More 15 minutes agophotos:Pens at jacketsron maclean was right to point out nhl’s bad refereeing call in montrealgranlund’s ot winning goal in game 3 another example of centre’s growthducks without getzlaf, selanne for game 4 vs.Starssurging sharks are confident with chance to sweep la kings in game 4
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