Prominent Quebec MP says he’s the best placed to beat Stephen Harper
NDP MP Thomas Mulcair will be joining the race for the party leadership. Mulcair made his long-rumoured intentions clear on Thursday, pitching himself as the best candidate “to beat Stephen Harper in the next election.” The MP for Outremont in Montreal joins Brian Topp, Romeo Saganash, Paul Dewar, Nathan Cullen and Martin Singh in launching a bid to replace Jack Layton as leader of the official opposition. Leading up to his announcement, there was speculation Mulcair may decline to run for the leader’s job since NDP supporters in Mulcair’s homebase of Quebec will be vastly outnumbered in the one-member-one-vote election. Quebec is home to fewer than 2,000 NDP members, while B.C. has 30,000 and Ontario has 22,000.