August 20, 2011
Toronto, Ontario

Dear Friends,

Tens of thousands of Canadians have written to me in recent weeks to wish me well. I want to thank each and every one of you for your thoughtful, inspiring and often beautiful notes, cards and gifts. Your spirit and love have lit up my home, my spirit, and my determination.

Unfortunately my treatment has not worked out as I hoped. So I am giving this letter to my partner Olivia to share with you in the circumstance in which I cannot continue.

I recommend that Hull-Aylmer MP Nycole Turmel continue her work as our interim leader until a permanent successor is elected.

I recommend the party hold a leadership vote as early as possible in the New Year, on approximately the same timelines as in 2003, so that our new leader has ample time to reconsolidate our team, renew our party and our program, and move forward towards the next election.

A few additional thoughts:

To other Canadians who are on journeys to defeat cancer and to live their lives, I say this: please don’t be discouraged that my own journey hasn’t gone as well as I had hoped. You must not lose your own hope. Treatments and therapies have never been better in the face of this disease. You have every reason to be optimistic, determined, and focused on the future. My only other advice is to cherish every moment with those you love at every stage of your journey, as I have done this summer.

To the members of my party: we’ve done remarkable things together in the past eight years. It has been a privilege to lead the New Democratic Party and I am most grateful for your confidence, your support, and the endless hours of volunteer commitment you have devoted to our cause. There will be those who will try to persuade you to give up our cause. But that cause is much bigger than any one leader. Answer them by recommitting with energy and determination to our work. Remember our proud history of social justice, universal health care, public pensions and making sure no one is left behind. Let’s continue to move forward. Let’s demonstrate in everything we do in the four years before us that we are ready to serve our beloved Canada as its next government.

To the members of our parliamentary caucus: I have been privileged to work with each and every one of you. Our caucus meetings were always the highlight of my week. It has been my role to ask a great deal from you. And now I am going to do so again. Canadians will be closely watching you in the months to come. Colleagues, I know you will make the tens of thousands of members of our party proud of you by demonstrating the same seamless teamwork and solidarity that has earned us the confidence of millions of Canadians in the recent election.

To my fellow Quebecers: On May 2nd, you made an historic decision. You decided that the way to replace Canada’s Conservative federal government with something better was by working together in partnership with progressive-minded Canadians across the country. You made the right decision then; it is still the right decision today; and it will be the right decision right through to the next election, when we will succeed, together. You have elected a superb team of New Democrats to Parliament. They are going to be doing remarkable things in the years to come to make this country better for us all.

To young Canadians: All my life I have worked to make things better. Hope and optimism have defined my political career, and I continue to be hopeful and optimistic about Canada. Young people have been a great source of inspiration for me. I have met and talked with so many of you about your dreams, your frustrations, and your ideas for change. More and more, you are engaging in politics because you want to change things for the better. Many of you have placed your trust in our party. As my time in political life draws to a close I want to share with you my belief in your power to change this country and this world. There are great challenges before you, from the overwhelming nature of climate change to the unfairness of an economy that excludes so many from our collective wealth, and the changes necessary to build a more inclusive and generous Canada. I believe in you. Your energy, your vision, your passion for justice are exactly what this country needs today. You need to be at the heart of our economy, our political life, and our plans for the present and the future.

And finally, to all Canadians: Canada is a great country, one of the hopes of the world. We can be a better one – a country of greater equality, justice, and opportunity. We can build a prosperous economy and a society that shares its benefits more fairly. We can look after our seniors. We can offer better futures for our children. We can do our part to save the world’s environment. We can restore our good name in the world. We can do all of these things because we finally have a party system at the national level where there are real choices; where your vote matters; where working for change can actually bring about change. In the months and years to come, New Democrats will put a compelling new alternative to you. My colleagues in our party are an impressive, committed team. Give them a careful hearing; consider the alternatives; and consider that we can be a better, fairer, more equal country by working together. Don’t let them tell you it can’t be done.

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.

All my very best,

Jack Layton

NDP To Choose New Leader in March

The NDP Federal Council announced Friday that it will choose its new leader at a convention in Toronto on March 24. The Council met to set the rules for the leadership race. "The leadership rules will provide for a vigourous and dynamic debate of ideas," said NDP Treasurer Rebecca Blaikie.

Candidates can begin now to declare their intentions to run for the leadership, but registration for the contest begins Sept. 15.  The council set the registration entry fee at $15,000, with a spending limit of $500,000 per leadership candidate.

NDP members can begin voting Feb.18, leading up to the convention a month later. The date and location for the convention were determined by the availability of a venue, and Blaikie said Toronto ended up being the place that met the NDP's requirements. "We're quite happy with the decision and it will also allow us the opportunity to celebrate Jack in the city that he represented," she said.

Media Causes Confusion Over Vote

Media speculation has caused confusion over whether the NDP allows for union votes to carry more weight in a leadership contest. Interim Leader, Nycole Turmel said the party now uses a one member, one vote system meaning unions would not be getting special status.

"In 2006, the convention changed the NDP constitution," she said. "If the NDP want to change that formula once again, they'll have to go back to the next convention to do so." "The constitution is clear: it's one member, one vote," Turmel added.

The president of Canada's largest union, CUPE, Paul Moist, weighed in on the role of unions in the party on Friday and the voting confusion.

"There is no issue over this question. There is no weighted union voting for NDP leadership campaigns," Moist, said in a statement. "In 2006, at the Quebec City convention, the constitution was amended to ensure that organized labour's role in the Party was maintained in its structures and in its membership, and to ensure that the one member, one vote principle applies to the process for electing our leader. The above facts have been lost over the course of the past week," he said.

BC Premier Runs From Election

Speaking September 7, Liberal Leader Christy Clark, announced she will finish out the remainder of Gordon Campbell's term, rather than go to an election.

After months of speculation about her intentions, Clark announced Wednesday night that she would not go the polls, but insisted it was not because her party would have been defeated.

"The B.C. Liberal party does do a lot of polling,” Clark said Thursday in Maple Ridge. “We've been doing quite a bit over the last while, and it suggested a favourable result if an election was called today."

Opposition leader Adrian Dix disagreed.

"Clearly the only issue facing the premier was where the Liberal Party stood in the polls,” said the B.C. NDP leader. “That was her only consideration." . Like most governing parties, the Liberals decline to release their polling results, but here's one by the Federation of Post Secondary Educators.

Jack Layton In Nanaimo on "Affordability" Tour

by Bob Smits
        Jack Layton & Zeni Maartman 

Speaking in Nanaimo Oct 13 Jack Layton explained he was on an affordability tour. "The Conservatives," he said, "have lost touch with Canada's  real economy. Canadians are in more debt, student loan debts are the highest they've ever been, and we're headed for a record national deficit."

"And yet Harper", he said," sees the banks are doing well and he claims Canada is out of recession.  He went on to point out 15% of young Canadians are unemployed, and that the HST added to bills has many seniors on fixed incomes really struggling. The NDP, he added, will propose that the HST not be applied to home heating.

Instead, said Layton, we should reinstate the eco-energy home retrofit program - which reduced greenhouse gas, reduced heating costs for homeowners and provided jobs for local tradespeople.

In reply to a question from this reporter, Layton denounced the further privatizing of Canada Post in Bill C9. "We need to preserve and strengthen public programs", he said. "Not weaken them further".

Our NDP MLAs

Clicking on the links below will give you information about each of the NDP MLAs that cover our area.

Leonard Krog, MLA

Doug Routley, MLA

Bill Routley, MLA

Our NDP MP

Clicking on the link below will take you to the NDP website for Jean Crowder, MP

Jean Crowder, MP

BC Child Poverty Rates Worst In Canada