Thank you, Jack
TORONTO, ON - As I walk through the crowd gathered at Nathan Philip's Square there's a rainbow of chalk messages underneath my feet. Three simple words keep reoccurring, on walls, pillars, staircases, over and over again; "Thank you, Jack."
The line-up to pay respects to the late Jack Layton, leader of the Official Opposition, has wrapped all the way around Toronto City Hall. As I join the end, a well-dressed aid informs me that to reach where Layton lies in repose will be over two hours. I tell him I'll wait.
Stopping to listen
It started in the early 1990s, with a story about cats and mice. Years before Layton would run for the leadership of the New Democratic Party (NDP), he was my politics teacher at Ryerson Polytechnic University. On the first day of class, he began handing out a copy of Mouseland - a story made famous by former Baptist pastor Tommy Douglas, the first federal leader of the NDP.
Coming from a staunchly conservative background, I immediately took the jean-wearing man with a bushy moustache to task. Then, even before I discovered his name, I witnessed one of the defining traits Layton's politics would be known for. He stopped, and listened.
Months later, my political leanings would lead to a confrontation with classmates, as I lost mock elections by a landslide, over my fiscally conservative platform.
But, Layton proclaimed what I saw as failure to in fact be a major victory. He himself had recently lost a bid for mayor of Toronto, and told my dissenters that he was proud of me - because there was no shame in losing when you are standing up for what you believe in.
Remarkable memory
After about half an hour in the line, I get a message from Melanee Thomas, a post-doctoral fellow at Queen's University.
Thomas and her mother ran as "sacrificial lamb" candidates for the NDP in Alberta in the early 2000s. Years later, she was surprised by Layton's reaction, when she introduced herself to him at a political meeting in Montreal.
"He not only remembered me," she says, "but remembered my mom, and asked warmly after her. To this day, I'm not sure how he did it, keeping us clear in his memory like that. But, I could tell he was genuinely interested in us.
"His character made him the kind of person I wanted to be around and to emulate, and his professionalism made him the kind of politician I could believe wholeheartedly in."
As a young person, Thomas had struggled with the political views of the church she grew up in. In Layton, she found a role model whose actions resonated with her faith.
"The Bible teaches us to be kind and compassionate," she adds, "and to do unto others who are down and out as we would do to Christ Himself. Jesus routinely showed love and affection to outcasts in his society - to the lepers and the prostitutes and the tax collectors - and Jack was the same. He cultivated relationships with the homeless, a group many treat with fear instead of kindness. As a man, he was one of the first to stand up and say that men should work to stop sexism and violence against women. He stood up for the planet, and advocated stewardship of the Earth."
Dignity for all
As one of Layton's students, I found the gritty practicality of Layton's political perspective a challenge to my previous "just pray until things change" mentality. Once, as a teenager, when I tumbled into his office in a flood of tears over a perceived crisis, he shocked me by asking whether or not I'd eaten yet that day. I hadn't. So he pulled some money from his wallet, told me to go eat, and then to come back and we'd tackle the issue together.
Another morning, he took me on a tour on some of Toronto's hardest homeless shelters. As we stood there looking at the metal beds, he asked me where I'd store my belongings while I slept. He explained that simple things like neighborhood design could prevent crime.
Keren Elumir is a street nurse with Sanctuary, and lives in Layton's riding.
"A huge reason for my respect for Jack is that he didn't come up with his solutions independently," she says, "He went to Tent City and sat around the campfires listening. He listened to battered women. He listened to our native community who felt completely disenfranchised. Out of all of his listening he put forward ideas and fought for people. And if you knew some of the people he listened too, you had to have enormous respect for him. He listened through waves of addictions and mental illness, and gave those individuals the same dignity and respect he gave every other person he met."
Within Sanctuary's street affiliated community there's an outpouring of stories of the difference Layton and his wife Olivia Chow made in the lives of the homeless, sex workers and addicts.
"He didn't focus on telling people all about what they had done wrong," Elumir adds. "He focused on words that sound an awful lot like the gospel - hope, love, change. Treat the woman or man standing on a street corner with AIDS as your brother or sister and provide them with real health care and housing. Treat each as if they were really someone who mattered to you."
Living worship
As I reach the casket and bow my head, I find myself asking for the strength to treat those I come in contact with, with that degree of respect and dignity.
Elumir sums up how I'm feeling.
"Jack spoke of trying to make all his actions - acts of worship," she says. "I want to live that way."
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