Jack Layton
John Gilbert (Jack) Layton (Montreal, July 18, 1950 - Toronto, August 22, 2011) was a Canadian politician. From 2003 to 2011 he was the party leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada (NDP).
Layton was born in an English-speaking family in French-speaking Montreal. He studied political science at the McGill University and moved to Toronto where he taught at Ryerson University in 1970. His political career began in 1982 when he was elected at the Toronto City Council where he became one of the leaders of the leftist groups.
In 2003 Layton made a throw to NDP leadership and he won a majority vote at the first round of voting. One year later, he was elected in the Toronto-Danforth district in the Canadian Warehouse. During the minority government of Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin, Layton initially agreed to support the government during the so-called Sponsorship Scandal in exchange for liberal concessions to the wishes of the NDP in the debate on the state budget. However, at the end of 2005, Layton expressed his support and supported a motion of suspicion filed by Conservative opposition leader Stephen Harper. In the elections that followed in January 2006, Layton's party won ten seats.
A major breakthrough took place in May 2011 when the NDP reached 103 seats in early elections and became the official opposition party in the House of Commons. The victory was mainly possible through a breakthrough in Quebec where more than half of the group came from. Three months after these elections, he died after a short sick bed. Externe link
wiki
