Photo: Among the Grasses

The news is travelling fast - Jack Layton, head of the New Democratic Party and leader of the Official Opposition, died of cancer this morning. Nobody expected it, really; people fight renewed bouts of cancer all the time, but there are always reminders like this that people don't always win.

I only saw him live twice - once in December 2008, during the freezing demonstration outside of Toronto City Hall against the first prorogation of Parliament, and then again in May, in the final big British Columbia rally in Burnaby a couple of days before the last election. He had an inspiring fire - more so than what you'd expect from an average politician, I think. He carried a sense of energy, of optimism, telling us in not so many words that there were great things we could do together.

Not many people such as him come around in any given time. I know he'll be sorely missed from one end of this country to the other.

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