XPost: can.politics, bc.politics, ab.politics   
   XPost: man.politics, sk.politics, ont.politics   
   From: ConsRCons@govt.cda   
      
     . . .   Because this country needs a leader who cares about its people   
   before anything else.   
      
   Harper cares about corporate profits, spy agencies and access to   
   Canadians' privacy, backing Israel and the U.S. in their wars, and   
   changing Canada's penal system to mirror that in the U.S.   
      
   Justin Trudeau cares about his hair, how to charm the ladies, how to   
   curry votes of any any group he might campaign within, and adjusting his   
   political speeches to match the wants of those particular audiences.   
   He's charming and insincere.   
      
   Thomas Mulcair can get our strength back; in job creation, in   
   environmental protection and in the respect of the world for our honesty   
   combined with the pride of autonomy.   
   Neither of the other leaders can - or will.   
      
   If you're planning to vote for the New Democrats in the next election,   
   give them your support financially to whatever extent you can.  They're   
   up against some very dirty players when it comes to election campaigns   
   and they will need every dollar we can give, to not only advance their   
   policies, but to fight the negative ads that will be coming at them.   
   _____________________________________   
   January 11, 2014 - Globe and Mail By John Ibbitson   
      
      
   NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair's next task: Win over the country   
      
   He's no charmer. He has no name cachet. And his party is often maligned   
   for its tax-and-spend legacy. But Mulcair may just be the candidate to watch   
      
      
   He has emerged from Jack Layton's shadow, won over his party and earned   
   the respect of people who follow Question Period. But now Thomas Mulcair   
   has a bigger battle – to win over the country. And he must do it this   
   year, long before the 2015 election campaign. He must also raise money   
   at a rate his party has never known, and connect with a suburban middle   
   class unsure of who he is. Most important, he must find some way to   
   steal the spotlight from the hyper-charismatic Justin Trudeau.If he   
   succeeds, persuading Ontario to swing left – and Quebec to stay there –   
   he will offer New Democrats their best-ever shot at power. If he fails,   
   he may lead them to the back of the pack.   
      
   High stakes. But Mr. Mulcair is supremely confident after his brilliant   
   performance during the Senate expenses scandal; his relentless,   
   prosecutorial grilling damaged Mr. Harper's credibility and solidified   
   his own reputation as a tactician.   
      
   "In 2015, people are going to be looking for somebody able to run the   
   country," he told The Globe and Mail during a wide-ranging conversation   
   in his spacious Centre Block office above that of the Prime Minister.   
   "I've got 35 years' experience."   
      
   The question is whether, even with those 35 years, Canadians are ready   
   to hand the reins to the tax-and-spend social democrats, and to a leader   
   often portrayed as impersonal and inaccessible?   
      
   His chief rivals have problems. Mr. Harper is battling scandal and voter   
   fatigue while Mr. Trudeau is untested and still struggling to revive a   
   party not far removed from its deathbed.   
      
   But both are much better known, and even the oft-maligned Prime Minister   
   is more popular, a deficit Mr. Mulcair must overcome quickly. In   
   politics, momentum is a fickle force, and the afterglow from the Senate   
   scandal may soon fade.   
      
   His party has a strategy, however, one it hopes will make Mulcair a   
   household name, and this week the first polling of the new year offered   
   some encouragement. Nanos Research reports that, among voters asked   
   which party they would consider endorsing, NDP support is holding firm   
   while that of both the Liberals and Conservatives has not. Even better,   
   Mr. Mulcair's personal appeal went up and Mr. Trudeau's fell, a sign the   
   Liberal leader's honeymoon may be coming to an end, just as a   
   Tom-meets-the-people tour is to begin next week.   
      
   A threat to party unity – free trade with Europe – will reappear when   
   Parliament returns Jan. 27, but he at least has had practice at healing   
   internal rifts.   
      
   When Jack Layton lost his battle with cancer on Aug. 22, 2011, the NDP   
   faced a crisis: how to replace a leader so beloved that even a   
   Conservative luminary, former prime minister Brian Mulroney, remembered   
   him as "someone who turned out to be a great man."   
      
   The ensuing leadership campaign attracted eight candidates but boiled   
   down to a race between Mr. Mulcair and another Quebecker: Brian Topp, a   
   former party president favoured by the NDP establishment. Although he   
   was deputy leader and had been in Ottawa for four years, Mr. Mulcair was   
   still considered an outsider who might drag the party toward the mushy   
   middle. He was also known for his quick temper. Feelings against him ran   
   so high in some circles that former leader Ed Broadbent felt compelled   
   to speak out.   
      
   "People should look carefully at the fact that, of the people [in   
   caucus] with Tom, 90 per cent of them are supporting other candidates,"   
   the NDP's grand old man, then 75, told The Globe and Mail.   
      
   Nonetheless, when the vote was held in Toronto on March 24, 2012, Mr.   
   Mulcair won convincingly on the fifth ballot. He then moved quickly to   
   heal internal rifts – leadership rivals were given prominent positions   
   in his shadow cabinet, former Layton aide Karl Bélanger became his   
   principal secretary and, later, Anne McGrath, his predecessor's chief of   
   staff, was asked to lead preparations for the next election.   
      
   He also had to weather a crisis that divided his caucus, again without   
   being dictatorial. When the sovereigntist Bloc Québécois introduced a   
   motion to repeal the Clarity Act, the federal legislation that requires   
   a clear majority vote before a province can try to secede, the NDP was   
   torn. Their own policy was similar to what the Bloc wanted. But while   
   some MPs, mostly from Quebec, supported the motion, others wanted   
   nothing to do with propping up separatists.   
      
   In a caucus meeting that lasted hours, Mr. Mulcair heard everyone out.   
   Later, he met MPs individually and in small groups to explain that,   
   while the party could never support the Bloc motion, neither could it   
   repudiate its own policy. In the end, the NDP put forward a "unity bill"   
   worded so that it could vote against the Bloc.   
      
   One member crossed the floor. But party insiders say that, by showing   
   such patience and willingness to compromise, Mr. Mulcair has since   
   enjoyed solid support from his caucus. He is especially close to the   
   many rookie MPs from his home province, as much mentor as leader, while   
   instructing them in the campaign skills they will need if the party has   
   any hope of preserving its gains in Quebec.   
      
      
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