NDP membership is concentrated in the western provinces and the party’s Quebec wing wants time to catch up before a leadership vote.

While 59 of the 103 NDP seats are located in Quebec, the party now has only 1,700 members in the province. By contrast, the party has 85,000 members in the rest of the country, meaning the Quebec contingent could be minuscule at the party convention unless leadership candidates have a long period to attract new members to the party.

“We don’t want a race that excludes Quebec,” Raoul Gebert, the president of the Quebec wing, said in an interview. “That’s my preoccupation; we want a race that occurs in Quebec as much as elsewhere.”

Meanwhile, you can add Nathan Cullen to the list of those considering a run for leader.