Dignitaries attend Jack Layton’s funeral
Posted August 27, 2011 12:37 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Politicians of all stripes are attending the funeral of the late NDP leader Jack Layton at Toronto’s Roy Thomson Hall.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Gov. Gen. David Johnston are among the guests, as are former prime ministers Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin.
“It’s obviously been an extraordinary and very emotional week. Canadians have had an opportunity to express their gratitude for Jack Layton’s contribution to public life and I hope all of this has been some comfort to his friends and family,” Harper said.
Former NDP leader Alexa McDonough will serve as a pallbearer, one of 16 honorary pallbearers.
“It’s a great honour but it’s not about anything personal,” she said.
“It’s about the past, present, and most of all, all of us, pulling together, symbolically walking together behind Jack’s coffin to create the sense of moving forward,” McDonough added.
Former Toronto mayor Mel Lastman had nothing but praise for Layton, calling the former councillor “the conscience” of the city.
“Here was a guy who said what he thought and said what he thought and let it show, the way he felt, which is so unlike politicians. You never know if they’re sincere or not. But Jack was,” Lastman said.
“He gave the city a conscience. He gave the politicians at city hall a conscience,” he added.
Layton died early Monday at the age of 61, less than a month after revealing he had been diagnosed with another cancer. He had disclosed in 2010 that he had prostate cancer.
His state funeral will be attended by about 1,700 invited guests and 600 members of the public who lined up for tickets.
Click here to watch a live stream of the state funeral. The funeral is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m.
Activist Stephen Lewis, who will be delivering Layton’s eulogy, and Lastman speak in the video.
