Earlier today Jack Layton sat down with CBC’s the Hour in his first one-on-one interview since revealing his prostate cancer diagnosis. Stroumboulopoulos’ show provided me with these exclusive clips of my former boss talking about the New Democratic Party and whether it can ever be elected to lead the federal government. (Note: the Vimeo video should be finished uploading/encoding by 8:00 EST)

Exclusive: Layton tells Strombo he can “stare death in the face” from Ian Capstick on Vimeo.

“Canadians like to do things step by step,” started Layton. After reacting amicably to the George-esq rejoinder of “there’s no fear of you become Prime Minister anytime soon.”

“Canadians have begun to elect NDP mayors,” said Layton. “That’s like sticking your toe in the water. They’ve begun electing provincial governments. If you had asked Alexa McDonough …  if there was every going to be an NDP government in Nova Scotia she would have said “yes” and everyone would have laughed. We now have Darrell Dexter in Nova Scotia.”

The second clip is much more personal and talks about his cancer diagnosis, being fearless and what it has taught him so far. Layton says he’s “very comfortable with the balance we were able to strike with what lays ahead”.  The entire interview airs tonight on CBC News Network, check your local listings for the time (11pmEST).