TORONTO — Thomas Mulcair, the man who spearheaded the NDP breakthrough in Quebec, has been elected to lead the party and fill the shoes left vacant after Jack Layton died last summer.
After more than 24 hours of voting and several technical hiccups along the way, thousands of New Democrats across the country have thrown their support behind the Montreal MP.
Mulcair led the field throughout the four rounds of balloting, overcoming his main contender and former party president, Brian Topp, in the final ballot with 33,881 votes over Topp’s 25,329.
Surrounded by caucus colleagues and standing below a sprawling orange screen with his name written in large orange letters, Mulcair thanked his supporters, volunteers and family — then launched his criticism on the Conservative government.
“Increasingly, Canadians feel that whoever their government is there to serve, it’s certainly not them,” the newly-minted leader said.
“Today we have the greatest human capacity and potential to put that human capacity to work…The challenge that confronts us is not a failure of ability or talent. It is a failure of leadership. And that is a failure that we intend to reverse.”
Mulcair was the first NDP contender in Quebec to win a seat in that province when, in a 2007 byelection, he managed to wrestle the Liberal stronghold of Outremont into his own hands.
Four years later, during the federal election, Quebec would become the epicentre of the “orange crush” that vaulted the NDP from fourth-party status in the House of Commons to official Opposition.
A few short months after the May election, however, the party’s beloved leader died of an undisclosed cancer.
Despite winning 58 of the province’s 75 ridings, Quebec had only 1,700 card carrying New Democrats when Mulcair threw his hat into the leadership race.
Throughout the campaign, however, the party managed to sign up more than 10,000 supporters in Quebec.
Mulcair spent a considerable amount of time during the seven-month campaign criss-crossing the country in an attempt to raise his profile outside his home province.
The strategy seemed to work, as he increased his percentage of the vote through each successive ballot.
“Leadership comes in many forms,” Mulcair told the crowd in Toronto. “Our current government appeals to people’s fears.”
Within minutes of the final ballot being announced, the Conservatives sent out a release with their own criticisms of the new NDP leader.
‘Thomas Mulcair is an opportunist whose high tax agenda, blind ambition and divisive personality would put Canadian families and their jobs at risk,” the party’s release read.
Manitoba MP Niki Ashton was eliminated after that first round of voting because she received the least support. Martin Singh and Paul Dewar, the candidates who placed fifth and sixth respectively, bowed out of the competition at that point.
The second ballot saw Peggy Nash eliminated, while Nathan Cullen fell off after the third round.
Of the failed candidates, only Singh encouraged his supporters to support a specific candidate — Mulcair. The others all said they wanted their supporters free to make their own decision.
Voting took longer than expected on Saturday after the electronic system the NDP contracted was temporarily locked-down.
Although party officials say there is no evidence to suggest any kind of cyber-attack, the incident is being investigated.
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