Jack Layton has announced that he is stepping down temporarily as NDP Leader to fight a second unspecified cancer that he had diagnosed last week. In a prepared statement given at a press conference in Toronto on Monday, the Opposition Leader, looking gaunt and sounding weak, said that the prostate cancer he had diagnosed in early 2010 is now nearly undetectable, but tests show he has a new "non-prostate" cancer that requires treatment.
Layton said he is hopeful and optimistic and expects to return to his job on September 19, when the House of commons comes back from summer recess. He has asked the party to appoint an interim leader and has recommended Nycole Turmel, the MP for Hull-Aylmer. Although Turmel is a 68-year-old rookie MP, she is the national chair of the NDP parliamentary caucus, and is the former President of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, a large public sector union. NDP party president Brian Topp said the NDP caucus and the federal council of the party will hold meetings and a decision on interim leader for the NDP will likely be made on Thursday.
Photo: Don MacKinnon / Getty Images
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