Jack Layton (July 18, 1950 – August 22, 2011)

In the words of Joni Mitchell’s Big Yellow Taxi: “You don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone.”

Jack Layton died ten years ago this week. It was the only time I voted NDP in a federal election. He was a Canadian Idealist.

In what is perhaps Layton’s most complete articulation of his political philosophy, a foreword he wrote for Canadian Idealism and the Philosophy of Freedom, he explains that, “The idealist current holds that human society has the potential to achieve liberty when people work together to form a society in which equality means more than negative liberty, the absolute and protected right to run races against each other to determine winners. Idealists imagine a positive liberty that enables us to build together toward common objectives that fulfill and even surpass our individual goals.”

Wikipedia

Here was a man who embodied my own ideals.

Jack’s accurate birth chart has one inconjunct.

Mercury Inconjunct Jupiter

You like to think big, and you have great ambitions, but you don’t always make sure that your thinking is clear or careful. When you make any kind of plan, be careful. Don’t try to take on more than you can handle and make sure not to overlook details, for that could hurt what you are trying to do. Careful planning will help you develop disciplined habits in other areas as well. This aspect can mean that you are sloppy in your personal appearance and in your work habits.

Jupiter is pivotal in his chart.

General Election (May 2, 2011)

See where the term Orange Wave comes from? It was the year that the Liberal Party was almost wiped out. There were many reasons for that, not the least was their leader at the time, Michael Ignatieff. The New Democratic Party had always been in third place until this election. Then they became the Official Opposition, for the first time. But Jack’s mission was over. He died three months and three weeks (less a day) later.

I was nagged by my dreams to write about this today. Sometimes, I can be a reluctant scribe. But if the inspiration is coming from a Higher Source, I have to give in and just do it.

The one inconjunct in the election chart is not dependent on a ‘correct’ time (which I set at noon). The Sun inconjunct Saturn, eh? Hmm. It was a harbinger of Jack’s death, I suspect.

Conclusion

After Jack’s death, his wife, Olivia Chow, had this quote published. It is his epitaph, now.

Amen.