RIP to "One Of The Good Guys"

"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." --John Gilbert "Jack" Layton, August 20, 2011

As recently as three years ago, I dismissed Jack Layton out of hand. There was something smarmy about him, I was convinced: he had the aura of a used-car salesman. His personality screamed politician. As in, he said all the right things, they way they all do...but without a trace of guile. Nobody's that idealistic, I thought. He's in this for himself, just like everybody else. He echoed many of my own beliefs, and I resented him for it.

LOVE IS BETTER THAN ANGER

Except Layton was that idealistic. He infamously suggested we negotiate with the Taliban, earning himself the nickname "Taliban Jack". Some of us laughed, derisively, knowing the Taliban for the terrorists they were and are. And yet...we've now pulled out of Afghanistan, leaving it--sorry to say--not overmuch better than we found it, and at the cost of 156 Canadian lives (our highest death toll since the Korean War). Would negotiation have lessened that grisly count? Quite possibly.

HOPE IS BETTER THAN FEAR

Jack beat prostate cancer once, and he did it in fine style. U.S. Ambassador to Canada David Jacobson characterized Layton as "the happy warrior". I wrote about Jackmyself in 2008 without knowing, at the time, I was doing so. It's no coincidence Layton resonated so strongly with youth, the people who haven't had the hope beaten out of them.

I've little doubt Jack Layton felt fear. Probably a great deal of it. But he didn't choose to show it. Instead, he showed hope. Hope and determination. That carried him and his party a great distance in a relatively short period of time. And, tellingly, his final message to Canadians is laced with hope.

OPTIMISM IS BETTER THAN DESPAIR

Whatever your politics, you can't help but respect Jack for making politics itself interesting and, dare I say it, noble again. Unlike many politicians whose principles are for sale, Layton never deviated from his one iota. It took Canadians, myself included, some time to grasp this, but when we did we grasped it with a will. Layton was the first politician I have ever voted for without hesitation--not because of his party's policies, some of which I strongly disagreed with, but because Layton himself embodied the respect I yearned to see in a political leader. He pressed for electoral reform even though at the time it would have substantially eaten into his party's seat count. He welcomed Elizabeth May and her Green Party on the scene despite the prospect of her splitting the vote.

And now he leaves behind a party he uplifted to Official Opposition for the first time in its history. It's full of green MPs that have already made their share of public gaffes. Many have already written them off. I'm not so sure that's a good idea. Not if they take Jack's message about optimism seriously:

SO LET US BE LOVING, HOPEFUL, AND OPTIMISTIC. AND WE'LL CHANGE THE WORLD.