Mounties carry the casket containing Jack Layton into the Parliament building where it will lie in state
This is the first time in Canadian history that a state funeral is held for a member of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition.
I would like to convey my condolences to the Layton/Chow family.
My father would have been 62 years old today. He died of colon cancer in February 2007 at age 57.
my dad and me (age 10 months) on January 25th, 1980
My father had a difficult life. He certainly didn’t make it easy on himself, but there were a lot of external forces against him, too. He was old and bitter and falling apart by his 40s and I knew I would lose him young.
So I was not surprised that he approached death the way he did, with open arms eager to embrace the mystery, but was surprised by how prepared and matter of fact he was about the whole thing. That his life was ending was logical, all lives end, but he could make it easier for those he left behind.
In those last days, he taught me that the only true wealth we gather in this world is our memories of a life well and richly lived. I honoured my promise to him that I would make changes that would enrich my life and make it happier. The wealth of memories I have accumulated in the last three years would be enough to satisfy me for a dozen lifetimes.
Time has marched on since that bitter cold February morning and now I sit on this fifth birthday of his without him. Five birthdays. Four and a half years. I miss my father terribly, but I know that he would find satisfaction in seeing what I have made of my life since he died.
My friend Sarah followed me across town yesterday and informed me that one of my brake lights was out! Thanks for the heads up! I wouldn’t want to be pulled over right now, when I have an interim Alberta driver’s license, Yukon registration, and seemingly expired Yukon insurance (hopefully pink slips are in the mail…)! I decided to get a new bulb today since it was getting really late last night. I asked Gary to show me how to get to the bulb (thanks!) and I drove straight to Canadian Tire this morning.
The bulb was a #1157 and came in a two-pack for $5, not bad since I would be able to install it myself. I had brought my screwdriver with me, so I changed the bulb immediately in the parking lot. Before reassembling everything, I flagged a lady down and asked her to confirm that the bulb was working. “You did it!” she said, so I slid the thingamabobs into the thingamajigs until they clicked and then screwed the assembly back into the body of the car.
And not a moment too soon since I passed a bunch of police keeping watch on a parade immediately after pulling out of the Canadian Tire parking lot!
I got an email today from my friend Sarah. She and Oz spent the summer traveling across Canada and are on their way back to Dawson City. This afternoon they were in Medicine Hat and on a major detour so they could come and see me. Hopefully I had a few hours free.
I did! This was the first week night in recent memory when I had nothing pressing to do!
Sarah and Oz arrived at my job at about 4:30 and it barely felt like a year had passed since we last saw each other! We enjoyed a long (and delicious) sushi dinner at O-Sho, then finished up with tea on a Starbucks patio. There wasn’t time to say everything that needed to be said, but the conversation about the various dilemmas in our lives did us a world of good. Sometimes it’s the people outside our world we confide in best.
I am just awed by her perfect timing; she had planned to be here Wednesday, when I wouldn’t have been able to enjoy such a long, carefree evening. It’s been a down and up kind of day and a beloved friend blowing through town was just the morale boost I needed.
I awoke to news that Jack Layton, chief of the National Democrat Party and Leader of the Opposition, died early this morning after a lengthy battle with cancer.
I truly feel that this man was Canada’s last and best hope for a cohesive, sensible, transparent, and just government. His victory at the last federal election, sweeping through Quebec and forever changing its political map, not to mention gaining the keys to Stornoway, shook many Canadians out of their political torpor.
Now, the party is in the hands of an interim leader, Nycole Turmel, whom I have never trusted. She will not be getting my vote for new leader of the NDP! I wish the reins had been handed over to someone else, perhaps Thomas Mulcair.
It will be strange to no longer get the orange emails from ‘Jack’, to not see that handsome and trustworthy face speak so eloquently and with such passion, to not have someone at the near-helm of this government that I believe actually truly gives a damn about the Canadian people.
Rest in peace, Jack, and may someone worthy of you pick up your fight.