Jack Layton’s news conference this week was shocking.
As the NDP leader told reporters on Monday that he was stepping aside temporarily to deal with a new cancer, his body looked like it had shrunk into a suddenly oversized suit.
His voice was frail and cracking.
It was hard to believe that the man who campaigned so energetically for the May 2 election while recovering from a broken hip could suddenly seem so weak and old.
He just turned 61 this month, which — to a guy of similar vintage — now seems merely middle-aged.
This year, Layton marked two big victories.
He announced that the prostate cancer he has been battling for 18 months is under control, with his prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels “almost undetectable.”
In May, he led the New Democrats through their most stunning campaign victory in party history.
The NDP won 103 seats in the House of Commons, 67 more than in the previous election.
They captured 4.5 million votes, 77 per cent of the winning Tories’ total and 16 per cent more than the Liberals, who used to call themselves Canada’s natural governing party.
In Alberta, despite a steady drumbeat about the rise of the right in the past three years, MP Linda Duncan held her lone NDP seat. She consolidated her squeaker victory over Rahim Jaffer in 2008 into a 6,000-vote win this year.
Prior to this election, the NDP’s Parliamentary high-water mark was 43 seats in 1988.
No NDP leader before Layton had ever become leader of Her Majesty’s official Opposition.
Inside the party in the run-up to the election, few stalwarts dared to believe it would happen this year.
Layton was among the roster of eternal optimists.
He is known on Parliament Hill as “smiling Jack” and on the campaign trail as the “happy warrior.”
He never gave up hope on his vision for a more socially democratic Canada.
His dedication inspired thousands of fellow travellers to follow his lead.
Layton won respect, even among many political opponents, for his commitment to build a better Canada.
He could sound strident in denouncing government policies and practices, to be sure.
Part of that image — which afflicts all federal politicians these days — is due to the media environment they live in.
If you want media attention in our time-starved and easily distracted society, shouting is surely the best way to get it.
Another part of Layton’s stridency in recent years, no doubt, comes from frustration in dealing with Prime Minister Stephen Harper, whose frequent first response is to bully people who don’t agree with him.
With Layton’s compromised health, his shouting days are over for now.
We should all hope that his time out of the limelight will be brief.
During his announcement, Layton said he would turn over operational reins of the NDP to caucus chair Nycole Turmel.
She’s a rookie MP from Quebec but a veteran in public life, as a longtime national labour representative.
Layton’s wish was unanimously endorsed by the Parliamentary caucus on Wednesday and the NDP federal council on Thursday.
Layton expressed hope that he would return to work in September.
“I’m going to fight this cancer now, so I can be back to fight for families when Parliament resumes,” Layton said on Monday.
That has to be an aspiration rather than a deadline. Regaining his health must remain Layton’s overarching focus.
He possesses some key attributes to do precisely that.
Layton is a disciplined and diligent man. He is a non-smoker who embraces an active lifestyle.
Before falling ill, he took time to work out regularly in the Parliamentary gym, to maintain his fitness level while enduring a punishing work schedule.
He has a devoted spouse, Olivia Chow, who is acutely aware of the pressures on politicians today, because she shares them as an MP herself.
Layton has adult children who are close to him, and he is a new grandfather.
He has thousands of Canadians hoping and praying for him.
Layton describes himself as a spiritual man, who grew up in the United Church, where his parents were Sunday school teachers and his father led a Christian youth group.
He knows first hand the power of prayer.
The day he publicly announced his prostate cancer, on Feb. 5, 2010, Layton returned home feeling giddily joyful.
Layton later told John Geddes of Maclean’s magazine that he didn’t know what to make of those inexplicable emotions until he awoke the following morning to find scores of messages and voice mails from Canadians who were supporting him and praying for him.
If prayers alone could cure cancer, few people would die from it.
But millions of people survive cancer every year, partly because of personal tenacity and the community support they receive.
There’s no doubt that Layton has both those attributes in spades.
If you don’t believe that, you don’t know Jack.
Joe McLaughlin is the retired former managing editor of the Red Deer Advocate.