A week laden with emotional pitfalls. Or Becca attempts a stiff upper lip and fails.

I woke up, like the rest of Canada, Monday morning, to the news that Jack Layton had passed away.  I will admit to crying. A fair bit. I didn't know him personally (obviously), but I've always liked him since he took over the NDP back in 2003.  I have voted NDP in every election I've been eligible to vote in, and in large part, I feel it's due to the trust he was able to engender from Canadians.  He was a charasmatic, intelligent and persuasive leader and will greatly be missed in the Canadian political landscape, which I worry veers ever closer to American style politics all the time under Steve.  He tirelessly advocated for the idea of looking after each other, and putting the needs of the many above the needs of the few, a welcome and essential counterpoint to the current Conservative government ideology. 

I remember when the 2011 federal election was about to start, my mother and I were watching the news and they showed an appearance Jack Layton was making and we both gasped at how terrible he looked.  Haggard, gaunt, using a cane to get around....but the remarkable thing was, unlike pretty much anyone else on the face of the Earth would, Jack started looking better and better as the election wore on. (Seriously, look at Barack Obama. 3 years in office and he looks 15 years older than when he started)  Like he was feeding off the momentum and energy his party was gaining.  I think his increasingly vibrant-looking public appearances settled concerns about his health, and reassured that he was going to be ok, if he could make it through something so arduous looking so robust.  It's so heartbreaking that he did make it through all of that, leading the NDP to such amazing gains, and then was robbed of the chance to enjoy it.  I worry now, with such a powerful influence gone, that Stephen Harper will take this opportunity to run roughshod over any social progress that might have been made (I'm sorry, I just assume he's evil untrustworthy. His hair NEVER moves. Like it's screwed onto his robot body every morning).  Hopefully the NDP are able to carry on successfully without Jack.  Rest in peace.  Thank you for reminding us all that humanity can and should have a place in politics.

Tuesday night was my last shift on GA3.  I think, to my credit, I only cried about 5 times.  A3 gave me my first nursing job, and showed me what it was like to be part of a family in the place that you work.  To face life and death, joy and sorrow, hope and despair, with a group of people you can unquestionably count on to have your back.  That, contrary to my senior practicum experience, nursing wasn't exclusively populated by backstabbing, negative, petty people who want to see you fail.  I was accepted and supported from my very first day on A3, and I will never forget that.  I wouldn't be the nurse I am today without the fabulous people there.

Just as an aside, may I say how irritating I find Hugh McFadyen's new election commercials.  Talking about how "Greg Selinger promised an end to hallway medicine and now we have more hallway medicine than ever."  I work at the biggest hospital in the province, and we don't keep people in the hallways.  If we're not able to accomodate someone, we send them somewhere that is.  Probably not hallway medicine like they had back when the last Conservative government fired all those nurses....Hey. Hugh. If health care is going to be one of your election "legs to stand on", you'd better make sure it's not made of crap.

"Always remember that the future comes one day at a time." - Dean Acheson