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

Earth to Canadians and Americans living on the East Coast: IT SNOWS EVERY WINTER.

Having lived most of my life in Quebec, where we actually know how to deal with snow, I can’t help but laugh when I see how the other half lives. I drive a Jeep, with snowtires, and I own a shovel. In January it is totally acceptable to show up at a bar wearing Sorels. When it snows we don’t cry, we go skiing.
I live in a city where snow is pretty well cleared. And best of all, it acts as a nice filler for those pesky potholes downtown. Ok, so Quebec is far from perfect, but at least we don’t ignore an entire season and hope it will go away!

I mean really Ontario and New York – It might be time to purchase some actual snowplows. And I don’t mean gardening trucks with makeshift attachments. Or are you just hoping that Global Warming will make this problem moot? Maybe, but that’s another blog post entirely.

Reminds me of this fun clip:

Happy January!

If you want updated information, check out La Presse. I find the Gazette’s reporting on this subject loose on facts, and borderline disrespectful (they posted a YouTube video of Police examining the body which did not sit well with me.)

The coverage from La Presse can be found here.

Deepest Sympathies to the Besner and Chinks families. This is just so sad.

Evidently he was at l’Orignale, a trendy Montreal eatery, Saturday night and went outside for a smoke. He never came back. While I don’t personally know Matthew Besner, we do have at least 10 mutual friends, so I can tell you this is not a hoax.

He is described as 5-foot-9 and 189 pounds, with light brown hair and brown eyes.

Here’s the official Missing person link from the Montreal Police.

Anyone with information is being asked to contact police on their confidential Infocrime line at 514-393-1133.

The Girl’s Summer Softball League (GSSL) is gearing up for its third annual All Star Softball tournament to benefit the Israel Cancer Research Fund (ICRF.)   A rarity in the charity world, the GSSL’s All Star tournament has no overhead, which means all proceeds go directly to the cause.   The tournament raised $16,000 the first year, and $ 24,000 the second year.  With your help, this year, we hope to exceed $25,000.

In order to help fund the tournament, the Batgirls will be hosting an ICRF evening at Typhoon Lounge, 5752 Monkland Avenue, on Wednesday, August 4, from 5-11pm.

Tickets are $10 in advance and $15 at the door.  Typhoon will be graciously offering up happy hour specials from 4pm to 8pm, as well as 1$ bottle beers, $5 wines, and $7 martinis all night long.  Additionally, raffle prizes will be available to all attendees.

We invite you to join us for a drink August 4^th, and to donate generously to the event, which has raised $ 40,000 to date to fight cancer. This year, funds raised will be donated in the memory of the league’s beloved head umpire and friend, Leon Blumer.

With your generous donations, this event is sure to be a home-run.

For tickets, please email Charna, Nat or Lesley.

There’s a cool event happening in Montreal tomorrow night, which you should definitely check out if you’re in the marketing world, or are looking to get into it.

The people at Ometz have put together a panel of marketing industry experts, who will both speak about their experiences, and answer questions.  It’s a chance to meet Experts in PR, Brand Management and E-Commerce.   Hear about their firms, Industry trends, and how you can get noticed as a job seeker.

The Marketing Industry evening’s panel of speakers includes Andy Nulman (Just for Laughs ex CEO), Robert Hoppenheim (Vic Park), Derek Cassoff (McGill Alumni), Monika Dygut (La Senza), and  Glen Eisenberg (Precision Advertising).

For more info visit http://www.ometz.ca/event/marketing-industry-information-evening-832/

It’s been almost 10 years since Suri passed away after a difficult three and a half year battle with cancer, but she is still very much alive in the hearts and minds of her family, friends, and countless others who she touched in her short life.

Suri was a community leader, artist, teacher, singer and actor who enjoyed life to its fullest and valued art in its many forms. It is with her passions in mind that Suri’s loved ones have joined forces with ICRF to out together this incredible event.

Suri’s Soiree, where the impossible is possible, will feature Canadian singer and songwriter Kuba Oms, DJ NV Nazli Var, who regularly spins at Montreal hot-spot Garde Manger and Grammy award winning musical guest, COMMON, who is scheduled to perform a compilation of his most popular hits.

All of the proceeds from the event will go to ICRF, which has raised more than 33 million dollars to date for over 1800 cancer research projects.

Suri’s friends, family, ICRF and this blogger invite you to be part of a celebration of life and art on March 27th, 2010, at the Segal Center for the performing arts.

Tickets can be purchased online at www.icrfnewleadership.com

My paternal grandmother, Gladys, was diagnosed with breast cancer the same month my mother discovered she was pregnant with me in 1979. At the time, it was considered unlikely that she would be around long enough to see her first grandchild born. But, armed with a tremendous will to live, she underwent a radical mastectomy, and embarked on a series of clinical trials, most notably for a then little-known drug called Tamoxifen.

Lesley and Grandma Gladys, circa 1985

At the time, I was a baby, and too little to understand the significance of the Tamoxifen trials, and the effect and hope it was having – not just on my grandmother, but on thousands of women. I would later learn that it was this drug, and the subsequent clinical trial, that helped to keep her alive throughout my childhood.

Now, nearly 30 years after breast cancer first rocked my family, it is still a nationwide crisis. In 2009, an estimated 22,700 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer. Breast cancer is the most common cancer among Canadian women, with one in nine women expected to develop breast cancer during her lifetime.
While my grandmother was never cancer free, she fought the disease, and lived post-diagnosis for 17 courageous years. When she passed away in 1996, she left us all feeling lucky to have known her, and more determined than ever to keep fighting.

This year, I will be running the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation CIBC Run for the Cure in Glady’s memory.

Help us continue to fight this disease, and to find the course of treatment that will finally eradicate breast cancer. My goal is to raise $1,700 : One hundred dollars for each of the years my grandmother courageously fought the disease. To contribute, click here to visit my donation page.

No donation amount is too small – every little bit helps.

CT Moore is an old friend and colleague of mine – who also happens to be a fun and engaging  speaker – so I thought I’d pass on his presentation. The topic of his presentation was Cloudvertising: Social Media and the Future of Online Advertising, and it explored how social media will shape the way that online ads and marketing campaigns will be targeted.

This is the Ustream recording of the appearance, with the Powerpoint presentation below.