The Martlet

On Mar. 24, the federal NDP will elect a new leader to stand in Official Opposition to the Harper government.

The leadership race is one of unprecedented circumstances. After last year’s historic election that decimated the Liberal Party and the Bloc Quebecois, the NDP has found itself in a position of heightened expectation across the country, holding down 102 seats in the House of Commons.

Faced with the task of filling a power vacuum left by former leader Jack Layton, who died of cancer shortly after his party’s sweeping political gains, the NDP will vote for one of eight candidates to stand toe-to-toe with a Tory majority. Here are the candidates:

NIKI ASHTON Elected in 2008 and again in 2011 as Member of Parliament (MP) for the riding of Churchill, Manitoba, the 29-year-old is the youngest serving female in the 40th parliament. Her father, Steve Ashton, is an NDP cabinet minister in the Manitoba provincial government.

Ashton has openly criticized Harper for representing “old politics”, which she says encourages division and polarization amongst Canadians.

In 2005, she was a strong advocate for the Civil Marriage Act, winning the NDP nomination in her riding from incumbent MP Bev Desjarlais, who crossed party lines to vote against it.

She has also spoken out against a contentious piece of Conservative legislation that would scrap the Canadian Wheat Board, saying dismantling the monopoly would hurt western Canadian farmers.

Ashton was elected as the Chair of a House standing committee on the Status of Women, having previously chaired an identical committee on the provincial level.

NATHAN CULLEN Cullen has been the MP for B.C’s Skeena–Bulkley Valley riding since 2004, when he defeated the Conservative’s Andy Burton.

He is the only leadership candidate to successfully defeat an incumbent Tory candidate.

As the longest serving MP in the race, Cullen has garnered a reputation in parliament for being able to work alongside other members in a bi-partisan manner.

During a stint as the NDP’s Environment and Natural Resources critic, he introduced a bill that led to a successful all-party discussion on climate change.

If elected, Cullen has promised to make electoral reform a priority. He would work toward implementing a proportionally representative model, which voters would choose through national referendum. He says the current system is dated, pointing out that over 75 countries in the world utilize proportional representation over single member plurality.

Cullen is also in favour of abolishing the Senate, an institution that he believes serves no real purpose in modern politics.

PAUL DEWAR Dewar was elected in 2006 as MP for Ottawa Centre, going on to serve in the House as the Official Opposition Critic for Foreign Affairs.

He is the son of former Ottawa mayor and NDP MP Marion Dewar, who held office in the ’80s.

Dewar worked as a teacher before entering politics and was a representative of the Ottawa-Carleton Elementary Teacher’s Federation.

Because of his background in education, he is committed to reducing post-secondary tuition fees, saying that he would work toward providing the provinces with a dedicated transfer of $800 million a year to be used explicitly for tuition fee reduction.

He has also made an ambitious program called “Your Canada Year,” a pillar of his platform. In the program, eligible students would work for a year with non-profit organizations across Canada and receive up to $6 000 toward tuition plus a monthly stipend of $500–$1 500.

The program would offer up to 10 000 opportunities in its first year at a cost of $200 million.

THOMAS MULCAIR Mulcair has been the MP for Outremont, Que., since 2007. Before his switch to federal politics, he served constituents in the Comedey riding as a member of the National Assembly under the province’s Liberal Party from 1994 until his election to the House of Commons.

Last year, he was named NDP Opposition House leader under Jack Layton.

Mulclair has worked as a civil servant in the Quebec provincial government, run a private law practice and taught law. Mulcair graduated with a degree in common and civil law from McGill, where he was elected as president of the Law Students Association.

In December, he presented the public with a comprehensive cap and trade plan that operates on a “polluters pay” framework to address climate change. The plan was endorsed by 2007 Nobel Peace Prize winner Andrew Weaver, who worked on a UN Intergovernmental global warming panel.

Mulclair was considered in early January to be a frontrunner in the leadership race.

PEGGY NASH Nash was elected in 2006 in Toronto’s Parkdale–High Park district. In the 2008 election, she lost her seat to Liberal candidate Gerard Kennedy, but regained it in 2011.

Before politics, she worked as a labour official for the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) union, where she was the executive responsible for several major auto negotiations, including a bargaining assignment with Ford in 2005.

Nash wants a sustainable national child-care plan on the agenda, promising that if she is elected, the NDP will work toward securing its framework and funding.

On Jan 11, she released a five-point plan for achieving women’s equality in Canada that included reinstating an amended federal long-gun registry to prevent domestic violence.

Nash has been endorsed by local federal MPs Denise Savoie (Victoria) and Randall Garrison (Esquimalt–Juan de Fuca).

ROMEO SAGANASH Saganash was elected last year as MP for Abitibi–Baie-James–Nunavik–Eeyou, a riding in northern Quebec.

He is a residential school survivor who in 1989 became the province’s first Cree to achieve a law degree, graduating from the University of Quebec. Saganash is also the first Indigenous person to seek leadership of a major federal political party in Canada.

He founded a national council to represent Cree youth in 1985 and served as deputy grand chief of the James Bay Crees of Northern Quebec from 1990 to 1993.

His skill in conflict resolution was shown in 2002, when he was a principle author of La Paix des Braves — a landmark agreement between the James Bay Cree and Quebec government that came after decades of court battles.

MARTIN SINGH Singh is a pharmacist, businessman, and political activist living in Musquodoboit, Nova Scotia.

An active member of the Sikh faith, he is president of the NDP’s faith and social justice commission.

His campaign for party leadership parallels his professional interests: business and pharmacare. He is vocal about Canada’s need for a national strategy that encourages innovation and entrepreneurship, saying the country needs to develop a plan that does not focus on science and technology exclusively; he says the framework should also extend into a social sphere where entrepreneurs can trade “social capital”.

Singh’s pharmacare plan outlines components of a program that would provide coverage for prescription medication to all Canadians regardless of financial circumstances.

He believes a national pharmacare program would save upward of $5 billion across Canada.

BRIAN TOPP Topp served as the president of the NDP before declaring his candidacy for party leadership. In addition to his political duties, he is also Executive Director and CEO of the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) union.

In 1993 he worked as a director of research in the premier’s office of Saskatchewan’s provincial NDP government, where he was later offered a job as deputy chief of staff under former premier Roy Romanow.

On Jan. 10, Topp outlined a plan aimed at restoring public confidence in the government. It included the removal of power from the Senate, either through abolition or reform, and an end to the Prime Minister’s ability to prorogue parliamentary sessions.

If given the opportunity, he would both re-invest in and launch a review of CBC operations in order to make it more sustainable and entertaining.

Topp has been endorsed by local NDP MP Jean Crowder (Nanaimo–Cowichan).

Want to vote in the NDP leadership race? Make sure to join the party by Feb. 18, the eligibility cut-off date.