The late Jack Layton has been chosen by editors and news directors across the country as Canada's Newsmaker of the Year.

Layton received 90 per cent of the votes in an annual survey by The Canadian Press — one of the widest margins in the 65-year history of the CP Newsmaker polling.

The next closest was Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who received just five per cent of the vote totals.

Layton's widow, Olivia Chow, says the former NDP leader connected with average Canadians, and brought a sense of "good" to the federal political landscape.

Layton was known for wearing funny hats into fundraisers, chatting with workers in line at the Tim Hortons, and bringing his guitar out for folk-song sing-alongs on campaign planes and in meeting rooms across the country.

He died of cancer on Aug. 22 at the age of 61.

Also earning votes in the survey were Canada's new female premiers, the protesters at the heart of the Occupy Canada movement, former auditor general Sheila Fraser and the Grande Prairie Composite Warriors football team.

The Canadian Press also conducted a parallel survey in conjunction with Yahoo Canada to allow the public to make its own choices for Newsmaker of the Year. The public results were no less clear: it was Layton by a landslide.

The late NDP leader claimed fully half of the online votes cast, with hockey commentator Don Cherry a distant second at 16 per cent. Prime Minister Stephen Harper garnered 10 per cent of the vote, narrowly edging the Occupy Canada protesters at 9.5 per cent.