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

(On an editorial side note, I’m running with the spelling “Hanukkah” because it’s what’s used in the article… but I’ve always been more partial to “Chanukah”.)

You can read Jeffrey Goldberg’s entire account of how Orrin Hatch came to write a Hanukkah song at Tablet Magazine. Here’s a little snipit:

“It’s a delightful thing to have Orrin Hatch write a song for Hanukkah. Of course I appreciate the absurdist quality to this project, but I also deeply appreciate Hatch’s earnestness. His lyrics are not postmodern or cynical, which is a blessing, because I for one have tired of the Adam Sandlerization of Judaism in America. Yes, we are, as a people, funny (at least when compared to other people, such as Croatians) but our neuroses, well-earned though they may be, have caused us to lacerate our own traditions, which are in fact (to borrow from Barack Obama) awesome. The story of Hanukkah is a good case in point—maybe the perfect one.”

Happy Hannukkah/Chanukah, everyone!

‘Eight Days of Hanukkah,’ by Sen. Orrin Hatch and Madeline Stone

Eight Days of Hanukkah from Tablet Magazine on Vimeo.

In Canada, she’s well known for her politics. She helped organize the Yvette women’s movement during the 1980 referendum on Quebec sovereignty, which fought to keep Canada united. She was an MP in Montreal for over a decade, and a later a Senator.

She also threw an amazing Passover Seder.

My dad grew up in her house, a regular playmate of two of her four boys. When exam time rolled around, the boys were each sent to their rooms to study, and my father, not wanting to leave, would sprawl out fully clothed in the big bathtub under the skylight to do his work.

While I never had any inclination to hang out in her bathroom, later in life I too would find myself not wanting to leave the Finestone home. Sheila’s sharp wit and intellect extended to her kids and to their kids, and to date, that family is one of the most fun and intelligent groups I’ve ever known.

In my life, Sheila has always been someone to look up to. In a time when housewives were the norm she set out on a courageous uncharted path. I liked her on a personal level too. She was brash, opinionated, classy, funny and fiercely devoted to her family. She loved her grandkids, and like any grandmother, got a kick out of trying to play matchmaker for her eldest grandson.

My family arrived up north two years ago and found her vacuuming her family’s cottage. When my mother asked her why on earth she wasn’t relaxing, Sheila replied with a smile: ‘But, it’s dusty in here, and accomplishing something is so satisfying!’ That truly was the way she lived her life, both in the political arena and personally; constantly taking matters into her own hands and getting things done. And not just getting thing done ‘ striving to make things better.

I will always remember her as a real, and wonderfully textured woman who stood up for what she believed in.

RIP Sheila.

Today Barak Obama will be sworn in as 44th President of the United States, but to say this is just an American event would be silly.  This election has inspired hope in the hearts and minds of people across the world – not just the United States.  As a result, this inauguration watched on television by a global audience of millions, and will also be the first inauguration to be shared over the global social media network of communities (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.)

This morning, CNN is broadcasting President-elect Barack Obama becoming the next President of the United States in a joint effort with Facebook. Clicking on the CNN live application brings the user to a CNN/Facebook hybrid type page that allows you to update your own Facebook status and see status updates from your friends, while simultaneously watching the inauguration. While I could stream the inauguration on another web channel, there’s something great about being able to be watching “with” your friends, even if it’s remotely. If you’re at work today, like I am, you can schedule your lunch for 11:30am – that’s when the swearing-in ceremony takes place, followed immediately by Obama’s inauguration address.

My friend Le refers to Obama’s welcome to DC concert as “The Grammy’s,” and she’s not entirely wrong.  This is being treated like a celebrity event, complete with coverage, hoopla and sharing across media channels. Not unlike Kennedy and his Rat Pack, Obama has a whole crew of celebrity supporters (Anyone remember Brother-in-Lawford?)

I’ll leave you with a fun Obama related slip. Did anyone else see Jill Biden’s “oops” moment on Oprah?  It went something like this: “Well, Joe was given the choice between being Vice President or Secretary of State…” before she saw the looks coming from both her husband, Oprah, and the entire live audience.  It was pretty awesome.
Happy Inauguration Day!