04 January 2015

Michael Den Tandt: Tom Mulcair is Ottawa’s best Parliamentarian — and yet he’s the only party leader likely to lose his job

http://news.nationalpost.com/2015/01/04/michael-den-tandt-tom-mulcair-is-ottawas-best-parliamentarian-and-yet-hes-the-only-party-leader-likely-to-lose-his-job/

New Democrat Leader Thomas Mulcair is the most effective Parliamentarian working in Ottawa today. The opposition leader is ferociously intelligent, quick on his feet and naturally authoritative. In small groups, he can be gregarious and charming. He works hard. Add healthy ambition to the list and you have a package that should be yielding his party big political dividends.
Yet it hasn’t.
Indeed, Mulcair is the only leader of a federal party who stands a fair chance of losing his job following the federal election, tentatively slated for later this year. His candidates have been hammered in every byelection round since the May 2, 2011, general election. Outside Quebec, the NDP’s standing has plummeted. Its national popular support in the low 20 per cent range is, for a fringe party, pretty good. For one hoping to take power, it’s abysmal.

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