NDP, public mark anniversary of Layton’s death

The first anniversary of Jack Layton’s death was used unapologetically to push the NDP’s political message Wednesday on Parliament Hill.

Amid messages of “Love” and with the Dominion carillonneur playing John Lennon’s song Imagine in the Peace Tower, supporters used the occasion not just to remember the leader, but to champion his partisan causes.

“The way to commemorate Jack is to get on with the work,” NDP MP Paul Dewar told reporters after delivering a speech to several dozen onlookers that veered into partisan waters and sharply criticized the ruling Conservatives.

“He was always focused on getting things going, moving things forward and not sitting back, looking behind.”

Events were planned across Canada on Wednesday to mark Layton’s untimely death from cancer last August just three months after taking his party to an electoral breakthrough and official Opposition party status — a first in the NDP’s 50-year history.

In a speech that started with the personal, Dewar ended up citing NDP opposition to Conservative cuts to refugee programs and the environment, and Layton’s commitment to the homeless and making Canada a “voice of peace” internationally.

Lobbyist Robin MacLachlan, a former NDP staffer, called Wednesday’s memorial a celebration of Layton’s life in politics and the community.

“For Jack there wasn’t much of a difference: community was politics for Jack,” MacLachlan told the Parliament Hill crowd.

Rita Hutchinson, 26, held up an orange poster with the single world “Love” on it as she stood listening to the tributes under the Peace Tower.

She said she’s been homeless at times and appreciated Layton’s position on low-income housing and helping those in society who fall through the cracks. His influence got her interested in politics, she said.

“I was always, like, I don’t want to get into it, it’s just dirty,” said Hutchinson.

“But when I seen Jack Layton there, I thought, ‘hey, maybe this is something for me.'”

Some 15 months after the NDP won 103 seats in the House of Commons, a new poll suggests Canadians still see the party in much the same light — notwithstanding its change of leadership.

Fifty-nine per cent of respondents to The Canadian Press Harris-Decima survey say the NDP of today under Leader Tom Mulcair is similar to when Layton led it.

Eight per cent said the party is very similar to when Layton led it, while 51 per cent said it was somewhat similar.

Twenty-two per cent of respondents said the NDP is not the same now.

The telephone poll of just over 1,000 Canadians was conducted Aug. 2-5 and is considered accurate to within plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, 19 times in 20.

A surge in NDP fortunes in Quebec was the key to the electoral breakthrough of May 2, 2011, and the poll suggests Layton’s death hasn’t changed how most people view the party in that province.

The survey indicates more than half of Quebecers polled feel the party is still similar to how it was under Layton.

Even though the survey indicates most people still see the party the same way, Mulcair is the first to admit he’s no Layton.

“I’ve said since the beginning, I’m not going to try to replace Jack,” Mulcair recently told The Canadian Press.

“I’m going to try to succeed him by being my own person.”

Mulcair attributes the smooth transition to the post-Layton era to lessons learned from his late predecessor and a continued wave of goodwill toward him.