Contrary to what our media has been telling us, the NDP’s rise in the polls doesn’t have so much to do with ‘sympathy’ for Jack Layton as it has to do with the unfiltered delivery of the NDP message, personified in Jack’s final letter to Canadians. This statement was broadcast only because the media was caught in a situation where they had no choice but to publish it.
Despite the bleats of protest from the National Post and Sun Media, this message resonated with Canadians because we finally had a chance to read and hear it. The words, much derided by a petty but tiny segment of our media, were a pure evocation of what it is to be a Canadian. And we listened.
Granted, sympathy for Jack Layton played a part in the poll. But sympathy for one man does not translate into support for a party. Canadians didn’t just register their support for the NDP out of sympathy for Jack Layton so much as they finally got to hear what the NDP stands for, boosted by the childish exhibition of rants by Blatchford, Kay, Coren and Levant et al, and that exposition only heightened the sincerity and eloquence of Jack’s words.
Those words made us feel good. They made us proud. They didn’t brag nor threaten. They elevated and inspired. They evoked the essence of our very Canadianism. My dad, a career Army man and a committed Conservative, would have loved what Jack wrote. The words were not so much Jack’s or the NDP’s but also words my dad used to speak to me when Progressive Conservatives were a kinder, gentler, more compassionate party. It was a different Canada then and unless the left and the centre gather together, we may not see that Canada again for quite some time.
I hope this is a sign to the NDP (and the Liberals) of the importance of messaging. It works wonders. They should try it some time. Even in death, Jack is showing you the way.
