A Great Read: Olivia Chow's autobiography "My Journey"

 

Last week I ventured into the Marmora Library for the first time in ages, thirsty for a good winter read. They didn't have any of Ian Hamilton's Ava Lee thrillers, so I lugged home Olivia Chow's 2014 autobio My Journey and Joe Fiorito's 2002 first novel,The Song Beneath the Ice. I decided to start with Olivia's book, as she's back in the news in a big way as the recently elected Mayor of our national city-state, Toronto.

I wasn't expecting much, maybe just a bit of political nostalgia from my days living in TO, from 1974 until I moved to the edge of the Kawarthas in 1989. I sure didn't expect a book I couldn't put down at night, and then held off reading the final four pages just so  I'd have an excuse to pick it up again. Yep, the book is a good read for anybody, and of course a great read for political junkies. It combines her insightful and exciting life story, including the fairy tale romance and marriage with Jack Layton, the man who should have been our Prime Minister. He almost was until cancer took its nasty toll at the last minute.

But it's many other stories - that of a Chinese immigrant from Hong Kong, born upper middle class (e.g. 'halfway up the mountain'). The family move to Canada wasn't the success her parents had imagined, and hard times followed. And it's the story of a talented artist (sculptor) who found her ultimate calling via the circultous ladder of progressive volunteerism and on into municipal politics. The book could definitely act as a step by step manual for wannabe politicos, and it's an historical tour guide of 1990s - 2000s Toronto and its cultural, political and progressive movements. There's feminism, LGBT+ rights, going back to the bath house raids my poet friend David Reed was swept up in. There are battles with the TO police union and surprisingly (to me) her creative assistance in organizing a giant rave in TO's Nathan Phillips City Square.

I recommended the book to my friend Sylvia, who lived in TO during most of Olivia and Jack's early decades of progressive organizing. She was reminded of sending her kids to Woodgreen Community Centre Daycare and when Jack Layton was her city councillor. Initially we both wondered how someone not known as a writer managed to write such an engaging and yet well organized book, and if she'd used a ghost writer. Well, Olivia followed the same template she's done all her life organizing. She put together a team who helped her organize the book and to give gentle guidance on what details to leave in, and what to omit. I wasn't surprised when I learned one of her helpers was journalist extraordinaire Victor Malarek. I remember reading his autobio, Hey Malarek!, when I first started working at the Main Street Library in east end Toronto.

Her book was published in 2014, but we know how the story continues, with Olivia Chow just elected the Mayor of Toronto (with strong powers - thanks Doug Ford). If you want to get some idea of where our national city-state is headed, My Journey will give the reader some great clues.


Harper Collins, 2014
328 pages
(great pic section as well)

                                                        ~    ~    ~

an afterthought: A brief haibun of mine was included in the artists' tribute to Jack Layton, Jack Layton: Art in Action, Penn Kemp, editor, Quattro Books, Inc.  2013. 

Wind Horses

Given how Jack championed wind power, it seems appropriate that prayer flags are called Wind Horses in Tibetan. Here is Chris Faiers's Prayer Flag Haibun for the occasion.

Regarding the vigil for Jack and hanging the prayer flags, I wanted to do something more uplifting (pun intended) than draw another chalk memorial on the concrete of Nathan Phillips. So  I bobbled around the fixtures of the skating rink, frantically trying to tie down the prayer flags in the downtown wind tunnel effect. An elderly couple stopped to encourage my efforts. They were possibly from India, and after I accomplished the hanging, they thanked me for displaying the prayer flags. They also  felt the flags were a most appropriate spiritual honour for Jack. 

city winds

carry our prayers

over Lake Ontario  

 

Jack Layton Tribute book published

 

I received this impressive book last night - its 300 pages
crammed into my tiny village mail box.

I'm pushing this book for the many reasons:
Jack was the only living Canuck politiko I reluctantly
came to believe in, he was a supporter of the arts, & a
wannabe artist himself (Jian Ghomeshi claims Jack as
a mentor, but calls his musicianship 'dodgy'!), & Jack
got things done on every level of politiks.

My longtime friend Sylvia lives in what is still known as
Jack's riding in Toronto's east end. An abandoned fire
station at the bottom of Pape Avenue above Queen St.
E. was the perfect location for a women's shelter,
but the NIMBYs fought it tooth & nail.  Jack & Olivia
won out, and every night when I'm in TO we walk our
dogs past this monument to Jack's conviction &
stubborness. In nice weather the residents come & go,
or relax by the grand entrance, and almost always
someone will call out to us and pet our dogs.

                           .................................................

I'm lefthanded & a poet, so I don't read books in
conventional fashion. I start at the back & read to the
front, & of course I mostly read the poetry first. Last
night I read until blurry eyes forced me to let the book
drop. I enjoyed pieces by old poetry friends and
comrades, many of whom I've shared pages with in
other anthologies and tributes.

Penn Kemp's consulting editor is Allan Briesmaster,
and some of Allan's poets from CROSSING LINES:
POETS WHO CAME TO CANADA IN THE
VIETNAM WAR ERA are here remembering Jack:
Daniel Kolos, Ellen Jaffe, Terry Ann Carter, Ronnie
R. Brown and myself.

There are terrific poems by People's Poets like Joe
Blades (with my favourite poem so far - simple &
funny & capturing Jack at an airport - sans
bodyguards or retinue, relaxed, unassuming,
sipping red wine). Another favourite is the poem
by Andreas Gripp, who has dragged an uninformed
friend to an event, & who insists on confusing the
histories of Irving and Jack LAYTON! Every
poet has a similar tale of a good friend with a very
blind spot regarding the appreciation of poetry, &
this piece is a romp. 

Robert Priest's tale of performing the tail end of a
music gig, with Jack being the only audience
member left standing,  proves what a fine essayist
Robert has become. Poet - yeah, he's TO's poet king,
& why the hell Priest never got the acclaim for his
music while far lesser bangers & wheezers got the
Junos - well, at least we got him as a People's Poet. 

                      !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There's a launch coming up at The Ravioli on May 2nd,
with an after party at Q Space. This is in the truest spirit
of Jack Layton - parties with music & singing & a glass
or two of red or an arm swinging in time with a frothing
beer attempting escape.