A conversation with Jack Layton

I sat in on an interview with federal NDP leader Jack Layton today, who was accompanied by local candidate Michael Crawford and Jesse Brady, the caucus press secretary. It’s not often you get to sit with the leader of a national party for an hour to discuss current political issues.

I was especially pleased to be able to attend this mini-meeting, held in our office, as I can’t make the 3 p.m. meeting between Layton and the Kamloops Chamber of Commerce board. He’s also talking with students at TRU, and with other media, so he has a busy day.

We talked about the full range of issues, including the proroguing of Parliament, the economy, Afghan detainees, the chances for a spring election and, especially, the style of Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

All of this will be covered in the local media, including The Daily News, so I won’t duplicate. I will say, though, that no matter what your political stripe, if you were to sit with this man for even a few minutes you would get the impression he is a very intelligent, capable and engaging individual.

Of course, he happens to belong to the wrong party, but don’t hold that against him. I’m almost always impressed with the quality of our senior political leaders, and I’ve met quite a few over the past several decades. Their politics might not agree, their ideas might conflict with one’s own, but their knowledge and their thought processes are a pleasure to witness.

I don’t go into such meetings with pre-conceived notions; I always come out of them having learned something from them. This one was no exception.