When Jack became bigger than politics

It is beyond remarkable how Canadians are reacting to Jack Layton's death. The state funeral, the orange CN Tower, the orange Niagara Falls... These are the most visible, institutional expressions of a country-wide explosion of grief and affection, the scale of which could hardly have been expected. There is a way in which the outpouring of emotion is feeding on itself: the more people see what a big deal Layton's passing is for their friends and neighbours, and especially for the every-wo/man shown on T.V., the more they pay attention to the story, and to the media's portrayal of the man who wrote them this farewell letter - "... 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." (The letter is reproduced in full at http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-notebook/laytons-last-words-love-is-better-than-anger-hope-is-better-than-fear/article2137381/. This last paragraph is circling the world on social media, and is finding its way on t-shirts.)
Jack Layton used to be well-liked, but for most of his political life he was only a minority's favorite. He had, after all, been the NDP's leader since 2003, and was making moderate, incremental progress from one election to the next. But he was not seen as fundamentally different from other politicians. Then, this year's electoral campaign happened and Layton caught fire. The man himself did not change for the occasion, really. Rather, people responded differently to "Jack." They started seeing "le bon Jack." What they started seeing, by the way, is beautifully rendered by Susan Riley in an Ottawa Citizen column at http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/canada-in-afghanistan/Layton+left+army+political+orphans/5309953/story.html. But Jack Layton, the good man, happy, optimistic, caring, sensible, thoughtful, etc. had been there all along - or at least for quite a while. But why didn't people see it? What happened now to make them see?
I want to suggest that, broadly, two factors were at play: political circumstances and the way in which Layton was seen to handle his prostate cancer and repaired hip. But we must first remember that the NDP's performance in 2011 was bifurcated: in English-speaking Canada, incremental improvements continued, as the party went from 36 seats to 44, its percentage of the vote rising strongly from 20.3% to 28.2%; and in Quebec, where Layton led something of a revolution, all but eliminating the Bloc Québécois, going from 1 to 59 seats, from 12.2% to 42.9% of the vote. In other words, Quebecers saw "Jack" during the campaign and responded. Other Canadians started to take notice as a result of Layton's Quebec performance and then, in quick succession, they were shocked to see and hear a desperately sick Jack in late July, followed less than a month later by news of his passing, and then hours after that, the letter. The response to Layton's death that we are seeing now was built out of that series of shocks.
The question needs to be rephrased: how is it that Quebecers started to see "Jack" during the electoral campaign? So, two factors. Let's deal first, quickly, with political circumstances, two components of which can be distinguished. First, what political scientists refer to the "political opportunity structure;" in other words, what the alternatives were to Layton and the NDP. In Quebec, the landscape was dismal: the Conservatives were not an option, Ignatieff disappointed while the Liberal brand remained damaged, and the Bloc Québécois ran a terrible campaign. Ducepped seemed grumpy, Harper was his usual sourpuss, Ignatieff failed to connect - and there was happy, positive, optimistic Layton. A second political component was also important, that added substance to Layton's sunny disposition: over the previous few years, the NDP had made a concerted effort to attract Quebecers by emphasizing its Quebec-friendly policies, and Layton never backtracked from those. As a result, if Quebecers could only start to pay attention, Layton and the NDP had something attractive to offer while pretty much no-one else did.
Ironically, and in the end tragically, it is Layton's failing health that made people sit up. Or, rather, it is the way he handled himself in relation to both his prostate cancer and to his repaired hip that transformed - indeed, transfigured - his public image.
Layton had always been a happy politician, "on" at all times; he liked politics, a lot. And for a long time, this wasn't helping him a whole lot: many people felt that he liked politics just too much. I happened to be his (and Olivia Chow's) neighbour across the hall in a housing co-op, around 1986-1988. Layton was a municipal councillor and Chow was beginning her career as school councillor. He was already a local NDP star, and very much the same happy Jack that he remained to the end. He was popular, his supporters loved him, but he was also seen by many as too much the politician, power-hungry, ready for any stunt that would help his career. He softened a number of edges over time, but Layton was always Layton. And after all, if politics is the dirty business that many people believe it to be, how can you trust someone who likes it so much? Layton was in politics, and was perceived through the distaste that so many people have for that career and enterprise. While he was likeable enough, the problem was that he was a politician.
But then Jack came through cancer, the iconic killer of our death-denying times, universally feared, indifferent to privilege. His (unrelated?) hip surgery then left him with the cane that became the visual marker of his health issues. It is the combination of his smile, energy, optimism and the cane that, in the circumstances, transfigured Jack Layton - first in the eyes of Quebecers, and then for people across Canada. Layton was no longer merely a politician: here was someone who had just fought for his life, was still weakened, and who was carrying a message of hope, love and optimism. "Jack" transcended politics. Canadians now love him, evidently. They love him for all those things in his character, but also for somehow being bigger than that nasty game that so few people have a taste for. Jack became bigger than politics.