Jack We Hardly Knew Ye

The people of Canada have been given the opportunity to freely exercise a vote of their conscience and the heart song rings across this nation in tribute to Jack Layton. He was a fighter and a lover for the earth and her people. He was a leader who knew the ropes and how to tie the knots binding opposites and bringing them together for the goals they all had in common. He cared for the future and well being of all his family down to the seventh generation. He was a person who never swerved of his vision. He was a person of great compassion, and of energy, integrity and persistence.

As was said at his funeral, he represented the “ordinary Canadian”. He made Canadians feel comfortable with his unassuming ordinariness. As an extraordinary effect, he made those of us he touched feel more than ordinary.

Ordinary Canadians count for the greatest part of the population of this country. They are students looking for a future, they are working people comprising the majority of the core of the economy, they are self-employed and small businesses, they are the marginalized and unemployed struggling to become something different, they are the First Nations from whom we can learn many truths, they are the diverse cultures that brighten the fabric of Canada, they are the men and women of the Police and Armed Forces putting themselves in harms way for their convictions, they are our first responders, they are our own spiritual leaders and elders who have the experiences of life to share, and so many more.

Ordinary people are the heart and soul of Canada.

Funerals have a way of drawing diverse people together and they become intimately aware of being in the presence of profound truth. I was down at Toronto City Hall and there was such an intensely, gentle power of the collective spirit, and hovering in the infinite space, the presence of profound truth.



Not just the citizens of Toronto filled every possible space with messages in chalk but people from far and wide chalked their hearts on the concrete. Last week even Nature provided another fresh page so that we had to search for a faded spot to chalk our thanks.

In many other places across Canada this was the experience during the last week, and in their unbounded freedom voted their honest appreciation for Jack.

This, Jack is what we knew of ye.

What if?...what if on the mountaintop and seeing the “the promised land” he could lead his people down. But sadly, this was not to be and we can only say, “Jack we hardly knew ye.”

But he said to us, we can all rise to the challenge of making a better Canada in the world. We are buoyed by his great spirit, and can continue to stand on the shoulders of giants. By this Jack, we know ye, and by this we will know again who Canadians are and the way to go.













Thank you Jack for showing us the way.