[RCO]

(well not really news that Mulcair isn't going to run again and will retire by 2019 . if he were to leave early and force a by election in Outremont that would create a difficult by election for the ndp to deal with )


Mulcair trips fuel rumours of impending retirement from politics



Open this photo in gallery: THE CANADIAN PRESS

NDP Leader Tom Mulcair stands during Question Period on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on September 19. Mr. Mulcair has participated in three foreign trips since his exit as NDP leader on Oct. 1, joining parliamentary delegations in Andorra, Russia and Bangladesh.

Sean Kilpatrick/THE CANADIAN PRESS



Daniel Leblanc

OTTAWA


2 days ago

November 5, 2017



Tom Mulcair has participated in three foreign trips since his exit as NDP leader on Oct. 1, joining parliamentary delegations in Andorra, Russia and Bangladesh in what could be the final weeks of his political career.

The three trips, in addition to his participation in an official visit to China in July, have fuelled speculation on Parliament Hill that Mr. Mulcair is taking the opportunity to travel the world ahead of his widely anticipated retirement as an MP.

"For the first time in a long time, I am doing what many other MPs have often done, that is to use my experience and my knowledge while taking part in various international parliamentary delegations," Mr. Mulcair said in a statement in response to questions about his recent travels.


Mr. Mulcair has clearly said he will not run again in the 2019 general election, and he has talked openly about having had job discussions with various universities and research institutions. Still, the date of his retirement remains unknown, even among some of his closest allies.

All MPs are eligible to participate in delegations organized by various parliamentary associations, which make dozens of trips every year largely at public expense.



The foreign trips are widely seen as perks controlled by each party's respective whip. Mr. Mulcair is the only MP who has participated in all three of his recent delegations.

NDP sources said Mr. Mulcair, who has expressed his desire to act as a kind of elder statesman for the party, is building up his contacts around the world after being mostly confined to domestic travels during his five years as leader.

By spending time abroad, Mr. Mulcair is also making sure that he is not stealing attention from his successor as NDP Leader, Jagmeet Singh.

According to his office, Mr. Mulcair joined the Canadian delegation for the parliamentary assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe in Andorra from Oct. 1 to 6. The meeting featured debates on "cybersecurity, climate change and the importance of education as a guarantee of stability," according to the official agenda.

Mr. Mulcair then went to Russia from Oct. 11 to 19 with the Canadian group of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, which held its assembly in St. Petersburg this year.


He is currently in Bangladesh with the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, his office said.

While he was still NDP leader, Mr. Mulcair joined then-governor-general David Johnston on an official visit to China from July 10 to 14. In addition to two ministers on the delegation, there were three MPs, but Mr. Mulcair was the only party leader.

Mr. Mulcair first won a federal seat in a by-election in 2007, and he was elected leader of the NDP in 2012.

After a disappointing result in the 2015 general election, he suffered a stinging defeat in a confidence vote at the party's convention in Edmonton in 2016. However, he remained leader and continued to grill the Liberal government in the House until he was officially replaced by Mr. Singh.

Mr. Mulcair has been coy about his exact plans for the future, although he has speculated about the possibility of joining a university after retiring from the House. He has also explored the possibility of working with law firms.

Mr. Mulcair was environment minister in the cabinet of former Quebec premier Jean Charest before he jumped into federal politics a decade ago.


"I am going to keep my seat for now," Mr. Mulcair told The Globe and Mail in September. "I am in very advanced discussions with a number of universities and research institutions in Canada and I am keeping those options open."

Mr. Mulcair added that he would "never [run] again at any level," while expressing a desire to act as an elder statesman in New Democratic circles.

"I hope to be the [former Ontario NDP leader] Stephen Lewis character who gets invited up to the stage [at NDP campaign events] to give a rousing speech in years to come, because I so firmly believe that we should finally get a government that others have only talked about," Mr. Mulcair said.

https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/mulcairs-travels-fuel-rumours-of-impending-retirement-from-politics/article36840486/

[cosmostein]

Not surprising.

The NDP turfed him after the second most successful election result in their history;
I was surprised he even bothered to stay on as interim leader.

The Outremont By-Election will mark the official end of the NDP's honeymoon with Quebec as the Liberals winning with anything less than 50% would be surprising.

[Bugs]

He was the guy whose belligerent awfulness tipped the election to Justin, imho.

I think the climactic moment was when the two opposition politicians were compelled to "cost out" their promises.

Mulcair presented an outline of a budget that was made up of categories of expense like "helping people". It was a farce, described by reporters as something written on the back of an envelope. but even that revealed that the $100 million promised various separate activist groups was the same $100 million. He was promising the same money to all these different groups. He didn't even blush. He just maintained his indignation that he was not PM until the end.

The Liberals saw how bad he looked, and they conceded they would project a small deficit, but, they said, they'd get the G-8's leading economy really going again. Was that a lie or a fizzled prediction? Whatever, it wasn't as naked as the other guy's lies, and it may even be defensible, largely due to Donald Trump.

Looking back, it seems like the electorate had already rejected Harper, after that bogus show-trial and the coordinated press coverage ... oh, and let's not forget the pliant judge who was conscious that the real purpose of the trial was to create headlines and justify Mulcairs sneering innuendos. Truly contemptible. (TC tells of that convicting Michael Bryant for something -- even leaving the scene of 'the accident -- had no reasonhable expectation of success, but that convicting the PM of bribing Mike Duffy did?)

To me, this is a man of unbridled ambition who made sneering suspicions and lies his whole politics. He reshaped the NDP, causing it to lose a chunk of its base, and began frittering away the gains in Quebec. (Thet aren't gone, but they will be.)

He arrogantly presented himself as the heir apparent, the next PM, created sympathy for Justin by displaying open contempt, and violated about notion of elementary justice in framing an entirely fictional case against Harper. He didn't lead the NDP to its second most successful result -- he failed to take the party to the next stage, yet required it sell its soul to get there.

"Judge not, lest you be judged." Well, if there's someone who deserves "judgement" more than this failed prosecutor I don't know who it would be.

[RCO]

[Bugs]

Why do people discuss this without reference to MP pensions, and all the other rich benefits that flow to our elected representatives? Why is Mulcair expected to float above such considerations?

He chose a path where he draws a better salary that he could earn elsewhere, and where he fattens his pension far more than he could otherwise. One shouldn't eliminate self-interest or greed from a politician's possible motivations. Just because he's led the NDP doesn't mean he's a saint.

[RCO]

( mulcair has now confirmed he will leave the house in June , staying a bit later than first though but unfortuently for the ndp forcing a by election in Outremont something this fall )

Former NDP leader Tom Mulcair leaving federal politics in June

Outremont MP will take a position at a Canadian university

By John Paul Tasker, CBC News Posted: Dec 18, 2017 5:57 PM ET| Last Updated: Dec 18, 2017 5:57 PM ET

Former federal NDP leader Tom Mulcair will leave his seat in the House in June.

Former NDP leader Tom Mulcair will resign the House of Commons seat he has held for roughly 10 years next June, the Quebec MP tells CBC's French-language service, Radio-Canada, paving the way for a byelection.

Mulcair plans to take up a position at a yet unnamed Canadian university.

"I'm looking at spring with a big smile, because it's been 40 years since I started in the government [...] I started in June 1978, in Quebec, during the first [Parti Québécois] government, and that's where I really took a liking to politics," Mulcair said in French in an interview with Radio-Canada's Louis Blouin Monday.

Mulcair said he will stick around Ottawa until June — when the House rises for the summer break — to finish some remaining parliamentary business. Mulcair, first elected as a federal MP in a byelection in 2007, took the reins of the party in 2012, not long after the death of Jack Layton.

Mulcair was only the second NDP MP ever elected in Quebec — Outremont, in Montreal, had to that point been one of the Liberal Party's safest seats — and he bested his Liberal opponent by some 11 percentage points in the 2015 federal election campaign. NDP polling fortunes have since taken a turn for the worse in that province, which could make for a competitive electoral contest.

Mulcair was ousted as leader by party members at a contentious convention in Edmonton in April 2016, which paved the way for a leadership race to replace him.

"Does it leave a bitterness? Obviously. I would have preferred another result, I will not hide it. But I had to deal with [that]. It's part of life," he said of that result.

Former Ontario MPP Jagmeet Singh was the victor in that campaign, and leads the party from outside the House as he currently does not hold a seat. He has so far refused to run in a series of byelections held this fall.


http://www.cbc.ca/news/politic.....53?cmp=rss

[RCO]

Former NDP leader Tom Mulcair expected to resign in spring

By The Canadian Press. Published on Dec 18, 2017 6:33pm



Former NDP leader Tom Mulcair is expected to resign as a Montreal MP in the new year.

A spokesperson for the New Democrats confirms Mulcair plans to depart after the spring parliamentary session, adding that the date of his resignation will be announced in the “near future.”

He is expected to take on a teaching role at a university but the name of the institution has not been announced.

Mulcair, a former Quebec Liberal cabinet minister, scored a stunning 2007 byelection upset for the federal NDP in the Montreal riding of Outremont, until then a Liberal stronghold.

He became leader of the NDP in 2012 in a contest sparked by the death of Jack Layton, who’d led the party to official Opposition status for the first time in its history.

But six months following disappointing election results in 2015, when the party dropped back into a distant third place, Mulcair became the first federal leader ever rejected by his own party members in a leadership review vote.

Jagmeet Singh took over the helm of the party this fall.

Mulcair’s departure is expected to spark a fierce byelection contest in Outremont, with the governing Liberals eager to reclaim their one-time bastion.


https://ipolitics.ca/2017/12/18/former-ndp-leader-tom-mulcair-expected-resign-spring/

[RCO]

Former NDP leader Tom Mulcair leaving federal politics in June

Outremont MP will take a position at a Canadian university

By John Paul Tasker, CBC News Posted: Dec 18, 2017 5:57 PM ET| Last Updated: Dec 18, 2017 8:18 PM ET

Former federal NDP leader Tom Mulcair will leave his seat in the House in June.


Former NDP leader Tom Mulcair will resign the House of Commons seat he has held for roughly 10 years next June, the Quebec MP tells CBC's French-language service, Radio-Canada, paving the way for a byelection.

Mulcair plans to take up a position at a yet unnamed Canadian university.

"I'm looking at spring with a big smile, because it's been 40 years since I started in the government [...] I started in June 1978, in Quebec, during the first [Parti Québécois] government, and that's where I really took a liking to politics," Mulcair said in French in an interview with Radio-Canada's Louis Blouin Monday.

Mulcair said he will stick around Ottawa until June — when the House rises for the summer break — to finish some remaining parliamentary business. Mulcair, first elected as a federal MP in a byelection in 2007, took the reins of the party in 2012, not long after the death of Jack Layton.

Mulcair was only the second NDP MP ever elected in Quebec — Outremont, in Montreal, had to that point been one of the Liberal Party's safest seats — and he bested his Liberal opponent by some 11 percentage points in the 2015 federal election campaign. NDP polling fortunes have since taken a turn for the worse in that province, which could make for a competitive electoral contest.

"Being elected four times for the NDP in Quebec — it's still a feat if we look at the history of our party in Quebec. Let's hope it's okay, and [that] Jack Layton's social-democratic vision, which we've worked so hard on, will continue," Mulcair said, referring to the number of times he contested, and won, the Outremont seat.

Mulcair, a lawyer by training and a long-time public servant in Quebec, was ousted as leader by party members at a contentious convention in Edmonton in April 2016, which paved the way for a leadership race to replace him.

"Does it leave a bitterness? Obviously. I would have preferred another result, I will not hide it. But I had to deal with [that]. It's part of life," he said of that result.

Former Ontario MPP Jagmeet Singh was the victor in that campaign, and leads the party from outside the House as he currently does not hold a seat. He has so far declined to run in a series of byelections held this fall. Another Quebec MP, and a former opponent of Singh's in the leadership race, Guy Caron, is serving as the party's parliamentary leader in the interim.

Mulcair has spoken only twice in the House since Singh was named leader in October — once to raise the issue of the thousands of Rohingya Muslims facing persecution in Myanmar, and another to wish a happy Hanukkah to Jewish Canadians.

A veteran member of the NDP parliamentary caucus, Charlie Angus, offered his best wishes Monday:


http://www.cbc.ca/news/politic.....-1.4455253

[RCO]

with Mulcair leaving in June , it seems likely there'd be a by election late in 2018 , which is also around the time of the next provincial election in Quebec . how that factors in or what level of attention voters pay to a federal by election that's only for the remaining year of Mulcair's term is unclear


the Conservatives aren't really much of a factor in this riding , only getting around 10% , its really between the ndp and liberals , although bloc used to do better in the riding before Mulcair won so they could be a factor

anyways I don't think I can ever recall a government that already had a majority that fought so hard to add new seats , if you were to look back historically a lot of the time governments lose by elections even in seats they normally win , the liberals have found a way to buck that trend and won a couple in ridings they don't normally win ( lac saint jean and south surrey white rock ) but Outremont is a riding they won for a very long time

[cosmostein]

The Liberals will have no issue winning the riding.
If anything its an opportunity to attract a strong candidate for cabinet.

Denis Coderre is available.

[RCO]

[cosmostein]