The leader of our opposition, elected roughly 100 days ago, Jack Layton has died after a very private battle with prostate cancer leaving his political party scrambling to deal with the fall out of what some are seeing this morning as a cover-up of a fatal illness during the election campaign. Layton was diagnosed 18 months before he died and it was obvious to those familiar with PCa that he was in significant trouble. His party, the NDP party, is Canada's socialist party, and has prided itself on
openness and it will be interesting, at least for us here in Canada to watch the debate on the tension between an individual's right to privacy and a public figure's obligation to be honest with voters. The media here, so far, have treated Layton's illness as a personal matter and neither he, nor the press has disclosed what treatment he had, except to say he was being treated and offer optimistic forecasts. In the PCa community there has been some unhappiness with his sweeping the cancer into a hid place, as if a personal embarrassment.
Above all it is sad to lose a PCa brother to this terrible disease and now that the facts of how tragic PCa can be are public and all over our national media, wouldn't it be wonderful if the government honored his memory and acknowledged his battle with a multi-million dollor PCa awareness campaign!
Note: I am assuming, as are the media, that it was PCa that killed him. All that's been announced is that it was cancer. It could have been a new, different, cancer.
Post Edited (Sleepless09) : 8/22/2011 9:03:08 AM (GMT-6)