It's difficult to know where to enter the conversation on the threat to public libraries (and the threat to everything else for that matter). There is no point that one can enter in a sane manner: to cut public libraries, perhaps in the end the most democratic of public institutions, is to say something about the end of the civil. Forgive me, that is a conceit. There is no ‘conversation' on the threat to public libraries. There is no interested interlocutor who will be persuaded by arguments as to the necessity not simply for the present libraries but for more support to libraries.

It has been year and a half since NDP Leader Jack Layton first announced that he had prostate cancer, on February 5, 2010. Over that time, despite consistent speculation about the state of his health, Layton led the NDP to its historic status as Official Opposition in the spring federal election. The "Orange Wave" that led to a reconfiguration of the political landscape in Canada, has largely been credited on Jack's personal popularity among Canadians.

Today, at a media conference held in Toronto, the NDP leader announced that he would be stepping back from the NDP leadership for a period of time in order to focus on his health.