Agree with him ideologically or not, Jack Layton was clearly no ordinary politician, and the week following his passing has been no ordinary week. The widespread emotional outpouring in response to his death has been, dare I say it? Unprecedented? I certainly can’t recall anything quite like it.
Of all the memorials to Jack Layton, planned or improvised, to me the most touching is the now-famous chalk memorial in Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto:
Not just because it was such a spontaneously creative outpouring of grief, respect and even love for the guy. But because one night the sky cried it all away, and then within 24 hours:
… tenacious Torontonians had stubbornly brought it back. It was an act in such synchronicity with Layton’s determinedly optimistic spirit, I found it really moving.
I wonder if what we saw this past week says something about what we really want.
