Bernie Sanders would be a Canada-friendly U.S. president. The junior senator from Vermont has complimented Canada during the presidential election. Sanders knows Canada and Quebec from being next door neighbors to Vermont.
In 1999, Sanders, then the sole congressman from Vermont, was the first member of Congress to lead seniors into Canada to buy cheaper prescription drugs.
Mitt Romney has vacationed in Canada. Ted Cruz is from Canada. Marco Rubio used Vancouver in a political ad. But Sanders would have been the most Canada friendly president since Chester A. Arthur, who some believe was born in Canada.
This is likely the final run for Sanders with the concluding Democratic Party primaries today in New Jersey, New Mexico, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and California.
In watching millennials gush over Bernie Sanders, that momentum reminded me of another progressive leader who was championed as a politician for the people.
Jack Layton had been the leader of the New Democratic Party since 2003. Layton's party traditionally ran 3rd, 4th behind the Bloc Quebecois, the separatist party that only had members in Quebec, and was more of an afterthought in federal elections. Bursts of power would come in minority governments, such as after the 2004 election where the NDP helped keep the minority Paul Martin government up and running.
In the election before Layton became the party leader, the NDP won 13 seats. Under Layton's leadership, the NDP grew stronger in each election: 19 seats (2004), 29 seats (2006), and 37 seats (2008), the last 2 being Stephen Harper minority governments.
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The 2011 election had a different feel for all the major parties, none more so than the NDP. Layton starts out the campaign in poor physical shape. He had been treated for prostate cancer the year before and had a hairline fracture in his left hip. So Layton had to campaign with a cane. The injury didn't stop Layton from aggressively campaigning, especially in Quebec.
Though Layton was from Quebec, he represnted Toronto-Danforth after a impressive stint on the Toronto City Council. But the NDP had struggled in Quebec. Despite the NDP growth, La Belle Province proved to be a struggle, even though Layton's French was rather good. The party only had a single seat in the province, Tom Mulcair in the Outremount riding in Montréal. Layton and his cane picked up a lot of momentum, especially in Quebec.
During the English-language debate, Layton criticized Michael Ignatieff's poor House of Commons attendance record, "You know, most Canadians, if they don't show up for work, they don't get a promotion!"
Layton had been around for a long time in federal politics, but like Sanders, in the 2011 election, voters really started to pay attention to what he was saying.
On election night, the NDP went from 37 seats to 103 seats, good enough to be the Official Opposition, the first time ever for the NDP. 59 of the 103 seats came from Quebec thanks to Layton's hard work in La Belle Province paying off and the federal collapse of the Bloc Quebecois.
Harper won a majority government on May 2, 2011, but Jack Layton was primed to be a strong, aggressive opposition leader.
Layton was in charge of the opposition through the new session of Parliament. However, Layton announced a leave of absence on July 25 to fight an undisclosed cancer. Layton had hoped to be back to Parliament in September.
Jack Layton died from that cancer on August 22 at the age of 61.
In an open letter written days before his death, Layton said. "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."
Sounds a lot like Bernie Sanders.
In 2008, Layton wrote to Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton saying that NAFTA had hurt working people in the U.S. and Canada "and those stories have to be told." That definitely sounds familiar to fans of Sanders.
The NDP didn't have a whole lot of power until 2011, but that didn't stop Layton for arguing for many worthy causes. Those topics include going against the privatization of health care, fighting for a tougher Clean Air Act, getting several amendments in the Liberal budget of 2005 to not topple the sitting government, speaking out in favor of net neutrality, wanting a program to "allow conscientious objectors against the Iraq War to remain in Canada. In 2008, Harper publicly acknowledged Layton's help in an apology to former students of native people's residential schools.
Layton was given a state funeral, even though he otherwise would not receive one. Harper made the gesture via the Governor General to Layton's widow, fellow MP Olivia Chow.
In June 2012, the Toronto City Council voted unanimously to rename the Toronto Island Ferry terminal after Layton and it is now known as the Jack Layton Ferry Terminal. If you are waiting in line for the ferry, you can see the statue of Jack Layton on the back end of a 2-seat bicycle.
So many millennials who are Bernie Sanders I have spoken to have only known of him for 6-12 months. You probably would have seen that same reaction in Canada to Jack Layton in 2011. Even at the time, I wondered why Canadians were suddenly interested in the NDP leader.
Sanders and Layton had been around being exactly who they were, but not taken seriously by the pundits and media. They attracted people who weren't normally interested in politics. They had hope and dreams that things could really be better for citizens.
Layton's untimely death sapped the momentum from the NDP. Mulcair proved to be an admirable opposition leader, but couldn't hold forward the loss of NDP seats in 2015. Like so many elections past, a number of voters went Liberal to make sure the Conservatives wouldn't stay in power.
"Secretary Clinton will have to explain to the people of our country how it could be that every other major country on earth manages to guarantee health care to all of their people, spending significantly less per capita than we can," Sen. Sanders said during an April debate with former Secretary Clinton. "I live 50 miles away from Canada, you know, it’s not some kind of communist authoritarian country. They’re doing OK."
For fans of Sanders, even if your candidate doesn't get the Democratic nomination for president in 2016, you should keep the fight alive for change. Sanders has been saying, and Layton would definitely agree, that it's about the people making things better. Strong leadership does help, but ultimately the people make the change in the political process.
Layton, who would have turned 66 this year, would have been bemused by a serious contender for president of the United States being a Democratic Socialist.
If Jack Layton had become prime minister and Bernie Sanders president, those U.S.-Canada talks would have been rich and significant. A lot would get done between the countries, and the leaders would have clicked like no other.
The CBC commissioned a film based on Layton's life. You can read more about that here.
photos credit: Politico//Chris Wattie/Reuters; Darryl Dyck/Canadian Press; me
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