Parliament remembers Layton as 'great leader, great Canadian'

by Canada.com on 20 Sep 2011

Friends and foes laid partisan politics aside for a moment Monday as the fall session of Parliament opened with a string of tributes for former NDP leader Jack Layton, who succumbed to cancer over the summer.

Taking her place opposite Prime Minister Stephen Harper, interim NDP leader Nycole Turmel opened her remarks by acknowledging the empty chair beside her where a "great Canadian, a great leader and a great parliamentarian" once sat.

"In this chair sat a friend, and I know that many other honourable members on both sides of this esteemed House call him the same," she said, before offering her condolences to Layton's family as well as his wife and fellow MP Olivia Chow.