Nation anticipates Layton’s recovery

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This article was published 26/07/2011 (5225 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Federal New Democratic Party Leader Jack Layton’s political career and personal life have hit another bump on the road as he announced on Monday that he would be taking a temporary leave of absence as party leader for health reasons.

Mr. Layton told a press conference that doctors have discovered a “new” form of cancer and that, on their advice, he is now for a time “going to focus on treatment and recovery.”

In making his announcement, Mr. Layton looked tired and thin, far more strained than he appeared during this year’s federal election, even though he was then recovering from prostate cancer, hip surgery and walking first with crutches and then with the waving cane that has become his ubiquitous symbol.

The NDP leader’s political career has also been checkered. After 20 years of ups and downs — more downs than ups, it seems — in municipal politics, he was elected leader of the federal NDP in 2003, and since then he has enjoyed an extraordinary string of increasing successes. Under his leadership, the party won 19 seats in 2006, 29 in 2006, and 37 in 2008 before astonishing the country, the party and probably himself by capturing 103 seats this year and forming the official Opposition.

Announcing his leave of absence, Mr. Layton said he hopes to be back in office when Parliament resumes Sept. 19 to “fight for families” and lead the party in the next election to “replace the Conservative government a few short years from now.”

Not long ago, that prospect would have not only been unlikely, but laughable. Today, it still seems unlikely, although perhaps less so, but it is no longer laughable after the NDP’s showing in the last election.

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It is a measure of the changing face of Canadian politics. Mr. Layton has recommended that in his absence, the interim leader be Nycole Turmel, a rookie MP from Quebec and a former leader of the Public Service Alliance of Canada. If that recommendation is accepted by caucus, it would join the two pillars of today’s NDP, its traditional union support and its new political base in Quebec. If the NDP can hold that support, it will establish itself as, at the least, a powerful regional force that should feel quite comfortable ideologically, not just with organized labour but with Quebec as well.

In the meantime, the nation anticipates the return of Mr. Layton to active political life. Hundreds of thousands of Canadians share conditions similar to his and, whatever their politics, wish him a quick recovery.