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NDP leadership race

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Chaos in every corner at NDP vote, then a crown for Thomas Mulcair Sonya Bell

I

n the long, slow march toward making Thomas Mulcair the leader of the NDP, there was time for more than just voting. During four long delayed-plagued rounds of ballot round, the party faithful debated, speculated and chanted. They made buttons, solved crossword puzzles, and napped.

“It’s a pretty long day,” said delegate Everett Barilla. By 9 p.m., the 18-year-old from Brampton, Ont., was sporting blue, green, and orange

scarves, representing the Niki Ashton, Nathan Cullen and Brian Topp campaigns. He was wearing a Thomas Mulcair pin on top of an orange Brian Topp jersey. Barilla started the day as a Paul Dewar supporter. “Unfortunately, things didn’t go the way we wanted to.”

Mulcair was always the frontrunner in the NDP leadership race, but the convention was not short on surprises, beginning with the first-ballot results. In one fell swoop, the three bottom candidates — Ashton, Martin Singh and Dewar — left the race. Singh immediately

moved to sit in the front row of the Mulcair bleachers, as he had said he would. But Ashton declined to publicly throw her support to anyone.

“My decision is my decision,” Ashton said.

The news came as a disappointment to the other camps, each of which thought Ashton might come their way. But it was the first of what would become an established practice Saturday: delegates dismissed with a blessing to make up their own minds. Dewar quickly followed suit, although his chosen deputy leader, Charlie Angus,

announced his endorsement for Mulcair.

Speaking to supporters after leaving the ballot, Dewar said it had been a difficult decision, but he believed it was the right one. He reiterated he was not instructing them how to vote on the next ballot.

“We’re independent thinkers around here.”

As word spread on the convention floor that Dewar had dropped out and Angus had gone to Mulcair, delegates mused that, at the end of the day, MPs have jobs to keep, too.

LONG DAY: 2

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After a long day big on glitches and surprises, the frontrunner was crowned just after 9:30 p.m.

FROM PAGE 1: LONG DAY There was no consensus among Ashton and Dewar supporters on where to head next.

“It’s a crapshoot,” said one delegate.

But that wasn’t for lack of trying from the other camps.

As soon as Ashton wrapped up a passionate thank you address, delivered atop a chair outside her campaign office and sealed with a thumbs-up sign, purple-clad Peggy Nash supporters descended.

“I’m not bribing you, but if you come over to Nash, I’ll give you this purple scarf,” one woman offered.

The chaos wasn’t only on the convention floor. Complaints from remote voters snowballed over the course of the day, with reports that multiple attempts to vote using the online system had failed. The party struggled to find a solution, and ended up adding additional time to each round.

“From the very start, our No. 1 priority has been to ensure that our members have the chance to vote,” said Rebecca Blaikie, the party president.

The second round of voting took two hours longer than expected. And although the Nash camp did succeed in winning some Ashton and Dewar supporters, it wasn’t enough to leapfrog past Cullen and stay in the game. When the results were finally read, the Nash supporters were utterly devastated, hugging one another and crying.

Here, the camps learned that preying on new delegates too soon can backfire.

“Come on over!” a Topp supporter called shortly after the announcement.

“Have some class!” retorted a Nash supporter.

But that’s all part of convention-floor coaxing. MP Libby Davies, a Topp supporter, quickly took to the floor, telling Nash supporters about what a good guy the former party president is. But the majority of Nash supporters took their purple signs to the Cullen camp — including former NDP leader Alexa McDonough and MPs Irene Mathyssen and Denise Savoie.

Nash herself did not endorse a second choice.

Cullen, who saw his campaign surge in popularity in the final weeks of the race, continued to build momentum going into the next round of voting.

“I love beating expectations.

I love underdogs,” Cullen said.

“I’m extremely hopeful. We don’t know which way it’s going to go.”

From his bleachers, supporters began to shout “Peggy! Peggy!” in an effort to call over her freed supporters.

By the time the Mulcair, Topp and Cullen camps reassembled in the convention hall to hear the results of the third ballot, they were hodgepodge groups, dotted with blue Ashton scarves and purple Nash signs.

Cullen’s crowd was at its largest and loudest when he finished last. When his name was read, Cullen looked away briefly, then returned with a trademark grin. He said he would support whomever the party chooses for leader, and that they would all work for a common goal.

“People have to move on, and get ready to form the next gov-

ernment of this country.”

The polls opened for a fourth and final time with just Mulcair and Topp remaining.

“I don’t know what to do, but I’m going to go line up,” shrugged one Cullen supporter.

While delegates mulled their options and took signs for one camp or the other, MPs Denise Savoie, Bruce Hyer, Megan Leslie, Brian Masse and Dennis Bevington were more decisive.

They all moved to join the Mulcair camp.

It took a fourth round — again extended by an hour — but Mulcair was announced the winner shortly after 9:30 p.m. He was joined on stage by the entire caucus, and joined hands with Topp, to wild applause. The majority of the delegates had been at the convention centre for a full 12 hours.

“I’m going to back the leader no matter what,” said Barilla, the delegate clad in every campaign’s colour. “We don’t want to come back for another 24-hour day, or two 24-hour days, right away.” sonyabell@ipolitics.ca

3 March 23–24, 2012 | NDP leadership race

4 March 23–24, 2012 | NDP leadership race

During four long delayed-plagued rounds of ballot round, the party faithful debated, speculated and chanted. They made buttons, solved crossword puzzles, and napped.

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6 March 23–24, 2012 | NDP leadership race

Mulcair the right man for the job Lawrence Martin If you were to name four qualities that a new NDP leader should have at this point in time they would be as follows: An eloquently bilingual politician with deep roots in Quebec who is capable of holding the party’s big base in that province as fashioned in the last election.

A seasoned operator with executive experience in government who doesn’t need on the job training and fits comfortably into the role of opposition leader.

A man of strength who is tough in the trenches, pointed on the attack and ready to go toe to toe with Stephen Harper and Bob Rae. A leader who is not strapped to a left-wing reputation or ideology and who is therefore capable of expanding the party’s appeal and taking it to the next level, which is governance.

There was one leadership candidate with such qualifications and the NDP has chosen him.

Whether Tom Mulcair will succeed is far from certain. The position of opposition leader is not one to be wished on anyone. Think of Stephane Dion, Michael Ignatieff and Stephen Harper’s uneasy time in opposition. Think of Stockwell Day, John Turner, Robert Stanfield and the trials of Jean Chretien in the post.

But what can be said of Mulcair is that at the starting point he is the right man for the job.

He comes to the leader’s position with more qualifications than any NDPer in decades.

His resume is more impressive than was Jack Layton’s whose experience was that of a municipal politician. It is richer than Alexa McDonough’s, Audrey McLaughlin’s and Ed Broadbent’s.

Mulcair has the aura of someone who can fit into the prime minister’s chair. There’s royal jelly in the belly. That wasn’t

He comes to the leader’s position with more qualifications than any NDPer in decades. His resume is more impressive than was Jack Layton’s whose experience was that of a municipal politician. It is richer than Alexa McDonough’s, Audrey McLaughlin’s and Ed Broadbent’s. apparent, oddly enough, in two major speeches Mulcair gave on the weekend. He delivered a weak, passionless victory speech on Saturday evening.

This followed an equally anemic address to the convention on Friday. It was like Mulcair had spent too much time listening to criticism that he is a smoldering hothead and went to the other extreme.

But if he wants to be effective he should ignore the critics and let the Irish blood from his father flow. One of his chief attributes is toughness. As a Quebec politician he was nicknamed the grizzly bear. Strong guys do

well in politics. Jean Chretien, Pierre Trudeau and Stephen Harper are prime examples.

Mulcair dominated the leadership race from the outset, took down the favoured candidate of the party establishment, Brian Topp, and has a strong mandate. He is not beholden to any powerbroker in the ranks. There is no need for him to change his ways as some do when they find themselves elevated.

In the campaign, Mulcair must have been sorely tempted to tear Ed Broadbent to pieces for his misguided assault. He held his tongue. But if he doesn’t go hard against Harper, he will

get rolled over. The Conservatives are already on the attack.

Out of one side of their mouth came congratulations from Stephen Harper. Out of the other, party spokesman Fred DeLorey was launching a personal assault. A policy-based critique would have been understandable but DeLorey went the cheap, personal route, calling Mulcair a divisive opportunist full of blind ambition.

That was consistent with a Harper team morality that finds the government in increasing difficulty. The robocalls scandal and related electoral fraud allegations, should they turn out to be serious, might make it easier for Mulcair. Governments, as the saying goes, defeat themselves. But Harper has drawn on considerable amounts of luck to get himself out of holes before.

Mulcair’s ascension, as it should, has all parties worried.

He is capable of out-debating Harper, he is capable of blocking a resurgence of the Bloc Quebecois and for the Liberals, he could spell despair.

Bob Rae’s few months as de facto opposition leader are over.

More bad news for the Liberals is that Mulcair’s strength in Quebec makes the chances of the Grits re-establishing a base in the province exceedingly dim. And yet more grim tidings for Rae is the new NDP leader’s desire to broaden his party’s appeal to the centre. In his press conference Sunday, a poised Mulcair reminded everyone that his victory was a mandate for the party to reach beyond its traditional base.

What the Liberals obviously would prefer is an NDP more firmly rooted on the left – in Ed Broadbent territory. But Mulcair is a politician without a long history on that side of spectrum. That makes him all the more suited to pilot the party at this time.

Lawrence Martin is a regular contributor to iPolitics.

7 March 23–24, 2012 | NDP leadership race

We’ll bring a fight to them they have never seen before: Mulcair away. He plans to start reorganizing the NDP benches TORONTO – It can be one of around Easter, prepare over the the toughest political arenas summer and come out strong in North America with riptides in the fall. that can tear apart the unwary or the unprepared.

‘At the end of the The cut and thrust of the Queday, the only recipe bec National Assembly’s Question Period drives the day’s I have ever known agenda. Cabinet ministers who is one Claude Ryan haven’t done their homework risk suddenly finding themtaught me which is selves in a political maelstrom. to work tirelessly.

Saying someone “lacked rigor” in their arguments or preparation is a withering put down, delivered like a political slap “We’ve got to structure an offiacross the face. cial opposition that will bring a That’s the terrain upon which fight to them like they have nevNew Democratic Party Leader er seen before,” he said Sunday.

Thomas Mulcair cut his politiYesterday, Mulcair sent a mescal teeth. It’s the kind of terrain sage to the party’s left wing, anthat Prime Minister Stephen nouncing that Libby Davies Harper and Conservative cabi- will continue as deputy leader net ministers may soon get to alongside a second person to be know all too well. named in coming weeks.

“Our question periods used to Former NDP Leader Jack cause the PQ ministers night- Layton’s chief of staff Anne Mcmares,” Mulcair said last week Grath has agreed to continue. in an interview with iPolitics.

However, Brad Lavigne, who “The only way to get there is has worked for the NDP since through a structured approach, 2006 – first as director of straa tough, determined official op- tegic communications then as position.” national director and principal Many of those qualities are secretary – has already tenones that Mulcair also honed dered his resignation. during his time working for Well before the vote, Mulcair former Quebec Liberal Leader had planned to reach out to his Claude Ryan. Aides like Mulcair former adversaries. soon learned that you had to “We’re just going to continue work hard, do your homework, to be positive and to reach out and be prepared to defend what to everyone,” he said last week. you said if you wanted to work “We don’t have the luxury of for Ryan. losing anyone. We’ve got tre“At the end of the day, the only mendous candidates who have recipe I have ever known is one been in this race who when we Claude Ryan taught me which get back into the House all deis to work tirelessly.” serve to be back in the front row Even before NDP members and in a position that reflects handed him the mantle of lead- their competence, their experiership Saturday, Mulcair had ence, their expertise.” laid out a roadmap for the first “A lot of the staff in the differfew months should he take the ent camps have been off in the helm. different directions. Some of With a federal budget due them are some of our more seThursday, Mulcair won’t be nior people. We’ve got to make making any changes right sure that we get them back in

Elizabeth Thompson

Thomas Mulcair responds to a questions in the Quebec legislature, Wednesday March 23, 2005. PHOTO: Jacques Boissinot/The Canadian Press

and use the best possible potential.

Speaking to reporters Sunday it was also clear that Mulcair wants to project the image of a government in waiting.

“It is important for us to be able to project confidence and competence as public administrators. That is sometimes what was missing.”

While the Conservatives have a track record of defining their opponents, as they did with Liberal leaders Stéphane Dion and Michael Ignatieff, Mulcair plans to turn the tables on them.

“We’re going to start doing the same to them,” he said last week.

“The process is one of using examples and what they are doing so the Canadian public understands that despite their branding on public administration, public spending has been

increasing 6 per cent a year for the past six years yet inflation has only been 2 per cent and they have nothing to show for it except building prisons for imaginary criminals and buying fighter jets that don’t work in the Arctic.”

Mulcair dismissed the Conservatives’ early attempts Saturday to define him as an opportunist and a high-taxing, high-spending left winger, dismissing it as “secondary school behavior.”

The Conservatives have proven adept at hardball tactics and intellectual swordplay doesn’t always win out against a political baseball bat. Time will tell whether Mulcair’s experience in Quebec City helps him avoid the same fate the Conservatives dealt previous opposition leaders like Dion and Ignatieff. elizabeththompson@ipolitics.ca

8 March 23–24, 2012 | NDP leadership race

Robin Sears

T

he instant propulsion of Jack Layton’s legacy to Olympian heights last summer caused many Liberals and Conservatives to silently grind their teeth. Those brave enough to endure the tribute to him at the NDP convention risk having their heads explode.

They had better get used to it.

Jack Kennedy was, in terms of achievement, barely a secondtier president. Jimi Hendrix and John Lennon were both coasting and frustrated with their careers when they died.

Yet each now lives in a permanent Camelot or Rock and Roll Heaven. Heroes snatched suddenly exert a primal grip on the public imagination.

Like other leaders who die before it seems fair, Layton’s real political legacy risks getting lost in this sort of misty nostalgic iconography. He deserves better. Layton’s political legacy is both far richer and more complex than the Golden Pond slides and lachrymose rhetoric of a political tribute night. It is powerful, and it contains important lessons for his successors.

First, Jack was tough. You

don’t get to be a party leader, or at least you won’t survive, if you are not. His skill, as with Tommy Douglas, was in disguising his steely edge behind a buoyant public grin. He was smart, not always a virtue in politics, especially — as Michael Ignatieff discovered — if you wear your intelligence on your sleeve. Jack never did, but in private he was constantly reading, reaching out to people with new ideas, testing the party’s and his own prejudices and paranoias. He never confused the importance of tough and complicated strategic analysis with simple, even simplistic political messages.

He and Olivia Chow were, as friends say in awe even now, “An organizing machine!”

They knew their Alinsky, Cesar Chavez and Martin Luther King lessons. They always worked very hard, attempting to out-organize every opponent, and usually did. When you are number three, with less money, and carry the burden of a party not convinced it can win, you had better have built a good organization if you claim, “I want to be prime minister!”

Part of that organizing ge-

nius was recruiting, mentoring and molding political staff, as well as candidates and caucus members. There was an enormous hole left at the centre of the office of the Leader of the Official Opposition when Layton so stunningly disappeared — but not at the staff level. His team was the finest group of communication and organizational professionals in Ottawa.

It was Anne McGrath and Brad Lavigne and their lieutenants, more than any caucus member, that held Jack’s bereaved caucus and party together throughout the awful months just ending. Together they are training close to 500 Hill staffers to be the skeleton and nervous system of the post-Layton NDP machine.

The new leader had better hope this veteran staff don’t quit.

Some are tempted no matter what the outcome, feeling they have done their duty, working incredibly long hours in very painful times for more than a year.

Stephane Dion and Michael Ignatieff are examples of Opposition leaders who were too long without the essential support of a strong and united po-

The new leader will assume an awesome burden, given the already mythic Layton legacy and its stillgrowing emotional power. The party would be wise to allow their new champion many months, many unforced errors and political stumbles as he or she grows into one of the toughest jobs in Canadian politics: Opposition leader in a majority parliament.

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Kyle Hamilton/iPOLITICS

litical staff. It contributed significantly to their fates.

A party determined to seek power is another astonishing thread in Jack’s legacy. This former New Democrat never thought he would see the day when a majority of the party members, across Canada, were determined to make the compromises that serious parties do to win power. It is hard to describe how profound this change is to someone outside the complex mesh of movement purity and partisan angst that was the old NDP. Stephen Harper, a great political strategist and an admirer of Layton, sees it. That’s why the Conservative attacks on the new leader will come swiftly and viciously. But many, perhaps most, Liberals and Conservatives — and much of the Canadian media — have still not got it: New Democrats intend to govern Canada in 2015.

Opening the door to discussions of coalition was the ground-breaking proof of Layton’s success. When Ed Broadbent listened to, but quickly rejected, Pierre Trudeau’s offer of coalition cabinet seats, his reward from a grateful party

was a convention resolution, approved without even a recorded vote, condemning him and the idea. When Bob Rae installed David Peterson as premier of Ontario, in return for a package of social democratic legislative goodies, he was met with fierce criticism and sniping from party activists and some caucus members.

When Jack Layton tried and failed to replace the Tories with an NDP/Liberal government, he was beatified on his way to political sainthood. The party grew up under Layton in a way it had under no other leader.

Then there is Quebec. The hyperbole of a leadership contest notwithstanding, Thomas Mulcair was a bit player in winning this jewel in Layton’s legacy crown. His defection was a useful early proof of Layton’s seriousness. Sadly, Mulcair’s idea of provincial organization was to demand that nearby candidates volunteer as his campaign workers.

It was Jack who understood, while still a Toronto municipal politician, that for social democrats to break the nationalist/ federalist vice of Quebec politics, they would have to take new risks, big risks: risks fi-

nancially, organizationally, in the use of his scarce time; and even bigger risks strategically in policy and in politics.

What Stephen Harper and Michael Ignatieff failed to understand about Quebec — and what Brian Mulroney and Pierre Trudeau did appreciate — is that you cannot win by placing one foot on each side of this deep political divide. Nationalist Quebec voters need to believe you get their angst about a community and culture that is perennially threatened with extinction.

Mulroney persuaded them, but sadly, not the rest of Canada.

Trudeau rejected them and won the rest of Canada.

Harper and Ignatieff, like many Canadian political leaders before them with failed Quebec strategies, believed they could flirt with both nationalist and federalist clans alternately.

Jack Layton was a student of his father’s boss in developing his keen understanding of young Quebecers in the 21st century. After the May 2 election, Mulroney and Layton spoke at length about the challenge of his new mandate.

It is yet another thread in the

tragic tapestry of his death that Canada will not see a Prime Minister Layton work to heal the wounds of the 1980-1993 constitution wars.

Finally, Layton gave meaning to the importance of authenticity in politics. His positions on homelessness, for example, were too hard-edged for some, but no one doubted his conviction or his sincerity. It is this authenticity that is the holy grail in contemporary politics. It is not about ideology — Harper has it, Mitt Romney does not. The deep mistrust of Mulcair, as expressed by party elders like Broadbent, is rooted in their concern about his believability as a social democrat, about his authenticity.

The new leader will assume an awesome burden, given the already mythic Layton legacy and its still-growing emotional power. The party would be wise to allow their new champion many months, many unforced errors and political stumbles as he or she grows into one of the toughest jobs in Canadian politics: Opposition leader in a majority parliament.

The new leader has three good years to make Jack smile on election night in 2015.

12 March 23–24, 2012 | NDP leadership race

Kyle Hamilton/iPolitics

Memo to Thomas Mulcair: ‘Frame yourself, your party, your vision’ Frank Graves Hearty congratulations. You’ve just won Canada’s longest ever leadership race — or maybe it just felt that way.

Endurance is sure to prove key as you step into what is certain to become Canada’s longest federal election campaign.

The precampaign used to refer to the three to six months before the drop of the writ.

In these days of U.S.-inspired hardball, it’s all politics — and attack ads — all the time. No doubt you play a starring role in pretested CPC attack ads that are ready to roll.

Politics in Canada is no longer practised, it’s waged. Except for ever-shrinking interludes of actual governance, the campaigning never ends. Each side is dedicated to counteracting the other’s next new thing.

But the destructive warfare fuels an unprecedented decline of public trust in politicians and their parties.

While not responding with Pollyannaish naivete, let’s consider some structural fixes. Top of the list? Mandatory voting, then a proportional representation fix for TFPTP mess.

Meanwhile, know that framing is critical. You need to get out ahead of those set to argue that you are “not a leader” or “just visiting.”

Frame yourself, your party, your vision.

At the same time, avoid going negative. Research suggests “hope and optimism” triumph over “fear and anger” — conservatives are drawn to threatening images, while progressives like optimism. Govern yourself accordingly. To borrow from onetime Clinton pollster Stanley Greenberg, three things win elections: 1. Emotion. 2. Emotion. 3. Emotion.

Be aware that people overestimate the reach and trajectory of Stephen Harper’s Conservative government. Sure, they won a majority with 39 per cent of voters, but quite likely their support with all eligible voters was considerably lower. In fact, the party has rarely climbed much higher than the one in three mark, so claims of a new dynasty aren’t much shared outside of this base.

The Conservatives may be formidable campaigners and astute political tacticians, but serious evidence does not show

Canada moving to the right.

So keep your eye on the ball!

It’s your constituency that is growing. All you have to do is to get them to show up. (Emotion, remember?)

If the Rae attack ads were inspired by the conviction that you are a blip floated on good luck, bandwagons and the late Jack Layton’s charisma, then allow the delusion to persist. It works to your favor. The Conservatives won’t consider you a dialectical response to the fact they’ve secured government from the right. Nor will they notice that the decline of the non-ideological middle works to your favour, not the Liberals.

It’s likely the Conservatives are not aware that inequality and fairness — the engines of your success — have emerged as pinnacle issues. Your party is in a unique position to deal with these concerns. Unfortunately, many consider the NDP deficient when it comes to actually managing the economy.

(Your positions on trade liberalization and globalization also present points of potential tension.)

Now onto the biggest strategic question you face: Should

you reach out to co-operate with the LPC and, possibly, the Greens?

While we don’t believe anyone thinks merger is an option before the next election, it will quickly become one if the Conservatives win another majority.

In the meantime, it seems that one-time arrangements of ad hoc co-operation could lead to an NDP-led coalition government. To start, Liberals and NDP could agree not to run in ridings in which the other party has the better chance.

Strategic voting doesn’t really work and it is unrealistic to think two parties with such deep roots, brand identities and rivalry could pull off a merger before the next election.

The stakes are huge. You might be winner-take-all, but my honest observation is that four choices on the left against one on the right is bad political arithmetic. If you gamble and fail, frustrated voters might take things out of your hands after the next election.

My advice? Consider the costs and benefits of co-operation. I think an ample constituency would reward such a path.

13 March 23–24, 2012 | NDP leadership race

NDP’s interim leader prepares to face fresh challenges Elizabeth Thompson It’s a job she never asked for.

Now, just as she is finally getting the hang of it, it’s a job she is about to hand over to someone else.

However, interim NDP leader Nycole Turmel says she is confident she is leaving the NDP’s next leader a strong team and a caucus that has remained together despite a leadership race that saw various members of the caucus rally behind different leadership candidates.

“We’ve stayed united,” Turmel said in an interview with iPolitics. “We know many MPs, staff supported one candidate or the other candidate, but at the same time they can talk to each other.

They can still work in the House and not divide themselves. This was a great accomplishment for the party.”

While Turmel has faced a trial by fire since she was named interim leader by the late NDP leader Jack Layton, keeping a caucus united through a leadership race is no small feat.

Other parties have sometimes seen their caucuses fracture into opposing camps during hotly contested leaderships, creating rifts that can take years to heal.

Yet it hasn’t been easy. Turmel was barely finding her feet as a rookie MP when she was thrust into the role of party leader. In-

Kyle Hamilton/iPOLITICS

experienced in Parliament and not entirely comfortable in English, she soon found herself embroiled in controversy over her previous membership in the Bloc Québécois.

She couldn’t even catch a break when she went on vacation. Turmel took a few days off in January, only to learn that Lise St-Denis, MP for the central Quebec riding of St. MauriceChamplain, had suddenly defected to the Liberals.

“I would say that during the summertime, we went through a difficult period and a lot of grief. September to December, as you know, in the House it was not easy. We had a Conservative government that was trying to push through everything — all its legislation, what they promised and everything. We had a new team. Myself, being new in the job, it was quite a challenge.”

get to the bottom of things like robocalls, and the fight for veterans rights, even though that motion wasn’t adopted.

Although the party has slipped in the polls in Quebec, Turmel says they don’t reflect what she and other MPs are seeing on the ground. They also come three years before the next election, she points out.

Soon, Turmel will trade the challenges of leading the NDP for a new test. When Finance Minister Jim Flaherty tables his budget on March 29, it will include the results of the government’s belt-tightening strategic and operating review — an exercise that risks costing a lot of public servants their jobs in Turmel’s riding of HullAylmer.

Turmel, a former public-service labour leader, has already begun to prepare the riding for the challenge, meeting with community groups and local officials.

“It is bad that this government has chosen to do this, to go this way. We always said, even when I was in the labour movement, we always said ‘Yes, it is good to review programs,’ but it is also about the direction you take.

It is also about the vision you develop. And this government hasn’t developed a vision that represents Canadians.”

Since then, however, Turmel feels she has found her stride.

Her team has come together.

She now holds the title as the longest serving female Opposition leader in Canadian history.

Even her command of English has significantly improved.

“I felt a lot of support all along, but especially since Christmas, the team is really working well together. The caucus is united and we are working really hard at the same time to present motions that reflect what Canadians are looking for.”

Turmel is particularly proud of several of the NDP’s accomplishments over the past months — her trip to the northern Ontario community of Attawapiskat, the NDP motions adopted by the House to support First Nations’ education and to give Elections Canada more investigative powers to elizabeththompson@ipolitics.ca

14 March 23–24, 2012 | NDP leadership race

The formerly live sketches from the NDP leadership convention by Toronto artist Sarah Lazarovic. Click for the flip-the-page form.

15 March 23–24, 2012 | NDP leadership race

16 March 23–24, 2012 | NDP leadership race

‘I have a message for the Prime Minister …

On March 26, a few notable NDP MPs stood in the House. Here’s just some of what they had to say:

Thomas Mulcair receives applause during Question Period in the House of Commons in Ottawa.

NIKI ASHTON: Over the last five months, I travelled across our great country and heard from Canadians about their real concerns: growing inequality, aboriginal poverty, inaction on climate change, the hollowing out of our economy and the growing threat of conflict. I heard from so many people that they are tired of the politics of division and polarization, attack ads and robocalls. Canadians want a government that will truly represent them, that understands the aspirations of Quebec, that will represent western Canadians instead of taking them for granted. I want to thank the people who supported our campaign and the so many people who joined together to elect our new leader. I want to thank my other colleagues who ran in this race. And I have a message for the Prime Minister: Enjoy being Prime Minister while it lasts. The orange wave is growing and will bring Canada’s first NDP government in 2015.

PAUL DEWAR: I thank my wife Julia and my son Nathaniel and Jordan so very much for their love and their support. I thank my incredible campaign team for believing in me. In the past months I have met thousands

of Canadians who want us to build a stronger and more caring country. They reject cynicism and they have embraced optimism. This was particularly evident with young and aboriginal people. Let us follow their lead. Let us give Canadians a future to believe in.

PEGGY NASH : I want also to thank the hundreds of members of my campaign team and those who worked tirelessly on other teams who could imagine a country that we would like to build, a country where Canadians are passionate for a new direction toward economic prosperity that includes everyone, with a sustainable environment and strong social programs. I know we can get there with our caucus united behind our leader and future Prime Minister, Thomas Mulcair. I know we can get there.

NATHAN CULLEN: My voice today is a bit strained, but my love and commitment to this party, to this movement, has never been more absolute.

We must build that better place.

We will build this better country. We have come together in ways not thought possible to take on the real opponents that we all face. Those of us who seek

office all owe gratitude, but the gratitude I owe most is to my loving wife Diana and my children. My thanks are absolute.

OLIVIA CHOW: Mr. Speaker, on Saturday, New Democrats came together to elect a leader of the official opposition. It was a race between many respected and dynamic candidates. We can be proud to say that New Democrats across Canada elected a strong and experienced leader to lead Canada’s New Democrats to form the next government in 2015.

I am proud to have a leader who worked alongside Jack Layton to unite Quebeckers and Canadians together, a leader who shares our values, a leader with experience and conviction, a leader who will hold the Conservatives to account and fight for everyday Canadians.

More than ever we are strong, we are united, and so today, we continue Jack’s legacy and rally behind our new leader, the Leader of the Official Opposition. I could not be more proud.

Bravo à notre nouveau chef.

M. THOMAS MULCAIR, LEADING OFF QUESTION PERIOD: The Leader of the Opposition wants to talk about the importance of economic growth for

Adrian Wyld/THE CANADIAN PRESS/

young Canadians. The reality is that since the worst point of the recession through until today over 610,000 net new jobs have been created and over 90% of those are full-time, well-paying jobs in every region of the country. We are going in the right direction. At the same time we have lowered taxes to the lowest point that they have been in 50 years.

We are putting more power and money and influence into the pockets of individual Canadians so they can choose how they want to live their lives rather than the big government, central control approach that is the hallmark of the NDP. Mr. Speaker, let us talk about how Canadians are going to live their lives when thousands of families are about to lose their livelihood with the shutdown of Aveos. These jobs are about to exported. That is the only direction that they know.

The government is throwing up its hands and saying there is nothing it can do. There is something it could do and it could do it now. The government could enforce the act, save these jobs, and do something for a change.

Why will the government not act?

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