Don't let them tell you it can't be done

Well, the world's all-a-tumble again today. Gaddafi might get overthrown. The little town of Goderich, Ontario looks like it has been overthrown!

And the leader of our opposition party--which is in opposition for the first time in history--died this morning of cancer. He was successfully treated for prostate cancer, and underwent hip surgery during the election (was running around waving a cane!) but a month ago stepped down because a new cancer was back.

Everyone loved this guy. Besides the leader of the Green Party, he's the party leader most people trusted. If he'd been in a more centrist party he'd be prime minister by now for sure, but the NDP is the party of unions. He was really upbeat and came off as genuine and warm, even to people who didn't agree with him. Everyone's commented on the tone of civility he brought to debates and what a "clean" campaign he ran.

There's also all these little stories coming out about how he was always first behind the *right* issues like boycotting South Africa, and Canada's official apology to aboriginal peoples for the residential schools.



Knowing he was going to die he left a farewell letter! That's the kind of guy he was. It's gone viral. There was a section in it to encourage cancer sufferers not to give up, a section for his party, for his caucus, for Quebec which almost completely voted for his party, a section for young Canadians "You need to be at the heart of our economy, our political life, and our plans for the present and the future", and finally a section to all Canadians.

The part I like from the letter is this, because right now we have a right-wing government and they're, like, real right-wingers. Bush-type right-wingers. The creepy kind.

Consider the alternatives; and consider that we can be a better, fairer, more equal country by working together. Don’t let them tell you it can’t be done.

But the last part of the letter is the part that's gone viral. Share it with your friends. Let it be an ongoing thorn in the side of my prime minister.

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.