Thousands pay tribute to Jack Layton in Vancouver
Posted August 22, 2011 6:51 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
About 2,000 people turned out at the Vancouver Art Gallery for a candlelight memorial to pay tribute to Jack Layton. Some people were so grief stricken they sobbed openly.
There was a book of condolences for people to sign on the steps of the art gallery that will be sent to his family.
Many people talked about the positive effect he had on young people. Kait Bolongaro says that’s what made Layton different.”I think as a youth, sometimes politics feels very alienating, and we feel really disconnected – especially here on the West Coast.”
Alvin Singh says it’s a day people are sad and upset. “But the fact so many people are out here, and talking about it on Facebook and Twitter is a testmanent to the movement he’s built.”
People brought orange flowers, wore orange t-shirts, even dressed their dogs and babies in orange.
On the quiet side street in Toronto where Layton lived with his politician wife Olivia Chow, friends and area residents stopped by, some bearing flowers.
“He was someone you could have a beer with,” said neighbourhood resident Ted Hawkins, who laid a single red rose on the doorstep “as a little bit of a tribute” to the longtime political presence.
“He was a very down-to-earth person.”
Sarah Hastie, a longtime area resident who also delivered a flower to his home, said she had hoped Layton would somehow beat the disease that forced him to step aside last month from his party-leader duties.
“Jack was such a fighter, and I was just always keeping my fingers crossed that this might be a battle that he would win,” Hastie said.
“It’s a terrible thing for his family but it’s an even greater loss for the country.”
A family friend emerged briefly from the home to request privacy.
Layton, 61, died early Monday barely three months after an election campaign in which he gamely led his New Democrats to Official Opposition status in the Commons.
Politicians of all stripes — some long retired — were quick to praise Layton.
“Jack Layton will be remembered for the force of his personality and his dedication to public life,” Prime Minister Stephen Harper said.
“We have lost an engaging personality, and a man of strong principle.”
Interim Liberal leader Bob Rae said the public Layton and the private Layton were one and the same — a naturally upbeat person that everyone liked even if they disagreed with his political views.
Layton showed “tremendous class,” and never complained about being stricken, and never showed any rancour, Rae said.
“He just saw it as another twist of fate that he was going to have to deal with.”
Rae said it was too soon to say what impact Layton’s death would have on federal politics.
Flags were lowered in the city where Layton cut his political teeth over an 18-year span as councillor, a function now served by his son Mike Layton.
“Jack was a fighter and he will be missed in Canadian politics,” said Mayor Rob Ford, who credited Layton with his own political successes.
“No one taught me more about how City Hall worked.”
On Parliament Hill and outside Toronto City Hall, hundreds of people — some carrying flowers — gathered in impromptu tributes.
At Layton’s closed constituency office, where someone had chalked “Thanks Jack” on the sidewalk, people stopped by to express condolences and to drop off flowers.
One of them, Philip Girard, said he wanted to show solidarity with those who had supported Layton.
“Political leadership is a rare thing, and he possessed it in good measure,” Girard said. “It will be hard to replace that.”
Across town at the Layton home, Cheuk Kwan, a longtime friend of Chow’s, said he was “really saddened” by Layton’s death even if it was not unexpected.
“I thought Jack had done a superhuman job of bringing the NDP to where it is right now,” Kwan said.
“It’s sad to see the party has lost a great leader.”
Wayne Hanley, national president of UFCW Canada, the country’s largest private-sector union, said Layton “worked tirelessly” toward creating a better Canada.
“His passing is a great loss for all Canadians,” Hanley said. “His tenacity to fight to make Canada a more compassionate and equitable country will be missed.”
A state funeral will be held in Toronto this Saturday.
