Jack Layton has left his imprint on the City of Toronto and the country of Canada

Jack Layton was born in Montreal on July 18, 1950 and he has represented me since me and my mom moved into the house I live in now since 1994 in one type of politics starting with Toronto Council where I had him come to Danforth Tech and invited all the students to a rollerblading party. He went straight from there to becoming the leader of the NDP as took down Dennis Mills in the Federal election in 2002 which was a very close race in Toronto-Danforth riding. He built the NDP into the opposition party by the time he had step a side on July 25,2011 and he had been given the opportunity he would of been a huge thorn in Stephen Harper's side for the next four years.

He leaves behind his second wife Olivia Chow along with his son Mike and daughter Sarah from his first marriage to Sally Halford and Olivia Chow will now try to keep the memory of her husband and will to help better the people of Canada as the MP of Trinity-Spadina which was Jack goal as the leader of the opposition party. While son Mike has taken his place in Toronto city council as he was elected in 2010 in step-moms riding of Trinity-Spadina.

Jack was the voice of the people over the years as he was an an early advocate for rights for AIDS patients, he was against the 100% funding of the skydome, he opposed to Toronto getting the 1996 Summer Olympics which ended up going to Coca-cola and the city of Atlanta, the white ribbon campaign that was a symbol against men being violence against women, and women right to have an abortion. He was also the chair in 1999 of the WindShare wind power cooperative program to help find ways to reuse energy.

His father Robert Layton was a Progressive Conservative MP under the leadership of Brain Mulroney in the 80's after being Liberal activist in the 60's and 70's while his grandfather Gilbert Layton was a cabinet minister in the Union Nationale government of Maurice Duplessis in Quebec. While his great-granduncle was William Steeves who was a Father of Confederation and his great grandfather Philip Layton was a blind activist who formed the Montreal Association for the blind in 1908 while in the 30's he lead a campaign for disability pensions.

Jack was leader, the people's voice, and an extremely energetic person

Tom Mehegan