In Death, Jack Layton Becomes an Icon

img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-102163" title="Jack Layton" src="/files/wxrimport/2011-08/jack-layton.jpg" alt="" width="440" height="280" /><

By dying before his time at age 61, at the very peak of his political career, NDP leader Jack Layton is assured of a certain immortality, if not mythology.

Political reality takes a back seat in light of the outpouring of grief and affection for the gritty socialist who broke away from his family’s conservative roots (his dad was a cabinet minister in the Mulroney government).

A certain aura adorns those who die at the apex of their careers.

Lord Nelson, dying at the victory of Trafalgar, won immortality and likely escaped court martial for defying Admiralty orders to sail to the Caribbean.

General Wolfe, being killed as the British won the Battle on the Plains of Abraham at Quebec City in 1759, became the stuff of legends. The same with General Gordon, who died heroically at Khartoum in 1885, fighting the forces of the Mahdi.

In modern times, the assassination of the Kennedy brothers, Jack in 1963 and Bobby in 1968, resulted in the memories being forever burnished. The same happened with Martin Luther King.

In a way, Jack Layton will be remembered for what he achieved – and what he might have prevented had he lived. The unprecedented electoral triumph of the NDP by winning 59 seats in Quebec (for a total 103 seats), to become the official opposition in the 2011 election, is credited to Layton’s cheery charisma and infectious optimism, rather than to failings by the Liberals and Bloc in Quebec.

We tend to forget that Quebec’s mercurial electorate sent 26 Social Credit MPs (Socreds) to Parliament in 1962. They blow hot and cold.

Even had he survived in robust health, Layton and the NDP faced trouble in the future with those neophyte MPs from Quebec, most of whom had no expectations of winning, and many of whom look doomed to lose next time around, when the Liberals and Bloc get their acts coordinated.

Now, if (when) the boom falls on the NDP, it’ll be interpreted that it wouldn’t have happened had only Jack been around. Not true, but that’s the way icons are treated – and Jack Layton has become something of an icon.

The outburst of emotional affection and sense of loss at Layton’s death is genuine and decent. Political foes are not necessarily personal enemies – at least in democracies that’s the case, and especially in Canadian politics. It’s one of the comforting realities of Canada.

Layton’s death – not unexpected, but sudden and surprising nonetheless – further entrenches Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Conservatives as virtually untouchable in Canada.

The leaderless Liberals, guided by interim leader Bob Rae, is a small cloud on the Tory horizon, but nothing to worry about at the moment.

Fortunately for Canada, the Harper government is both confident and competent, and has shown world-class leadership in dealing with the economic mess so many countries are in.

But democracy flourishes best when there’s a strong opposition party – which isn’t the case in Canada now, and wouldn’t have been if Jack Layton were alive and healthy, because his battles were going to be among the MPs he led. He would have had to keep them harnessed and responsible.

That’s no longer the case. Now that Jack’s being accorded something akin to political sainthood, whoever the next leader is will be blamed when the NDP are reduced to their more usual 30 to 45 seats in Parliament.

But that’s the future.

There’s a vacuum in the NDP now, and there’s no persuasive replacement visible for Jack Layton.