Larger than life

Jack Layton's (leader of the Canadian New Democrat Party), recent passing – a victim of cancer – was a shock to many Canadians. Regardless of your opinion of Jack's politics / methods, it is difficult to argue with the fact that he was effective. Jack was extremely focused, energetic and charismatic and his leadership in the most recent federal election won his party their highest number of seats on record.

However, in retrospect, the vast majority of votes were for Jack Layton and not necessarily for the NDP party or their platform. In certain ridings, individuals were elected that were unknown to voters and completely absent during the campaign. This voting "fever" was termed "orange crush," because orange is the party's official colour. In the riding that I live – a majority conservative riding – I noticed an extremely large sign on a resident's lawn for Jack Layton. The irony is that in Canada, we don't vote for the leader, we vote for the specific MP (member of Parliament) and the party that wins the most seats forms government. In essence, NDP voters put all their hope on one man – Jack Layton.

The problem with this is that Jack Layton was the NDP party / the NDP party was Jack Layton. His passing leaves a gigantic vacuum. Jack was larger than life and there is no one that can fill the void left by his passing.

If the leader is "it," the one with the all ideas, all the energy, all the solutions and fails to mentor others to become like them and eventually be them; the reign of their organization is finite.

Leaders must work to become irrelevant.

Larger than life