While people's heads continue to explode over Justin Trudeau appropriating a quote from the late NDP leader Jack Layton, we cats — who write for a living when we're not chasing mice — figured we'd better weigh in.
Justin paraphrased Layton this past Election Night, when he made a speech criticizing the New Democrats for running a negative by-election campaign. "It is the Liberal party tonight that proved hope is stronger than fear, that positive politics can and should win out over negative," he said.
It's the "hope" and "fear" part that has made people mad. Because a few days before his death back in 2011, Layton published a lovely letter to Canadians, saying, in essence, goodbye. "My friends...hope is better than fear," he wrote. "Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world."
We cats think that by itself, the borrowing of "hope" and "fear" is harmless. But our first thought was this: Although those were not Layton's "dying" words, as some have claimed, Jack has been gone only a short time. If we had been Justin's speechwriters Monday night, we would have told him to leave well enough alone.
But then we realized what he was really up to. He was laying down a marker for 2015 — making a definitive statement to Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party that, two years from now, trashy, Republican-style campaigning (of which Harper is so fond; just ask Stephane Dion and Michael Ignatieff) will not be tolerated.
So, NDPers who are loading the Twitterverse with outrage and umbrage: Take the long view. You are not the real target. And in the meantime, it wouldn't hurt to remember your late leader's other famous words: "Love is better than anger."
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