The head of Canada’s leftwing New Democrats, Thomas Mulcair, has announced he will step down. Mulcair lost a key leadership vote on Sunday.
Mulcair suffered a massive loss in last October’s election despite beginning the race as a favored contender to replace the Conservative, Stephen Harper, as prime minister, a post now filled by Justin Trudeau of the Liberal party.
Mulcair, who barely held on to his own seat, said in his concession speech: “Canadians made a choice and we accept it with humility.”
At a New Democrats party event that was broadcast live from Edmonton on Sunday, 52% of delegates voted for a convention to choose a new leader. Announcing his decision to step down, Mulcair said he would remain leader until the party picks his replacement.
The party’s constitution stipulated that Mulcair needed a simple majority to stave off a leadership vote, and he had said he would consider a higher threshold of 70%.
Mulcair’s party lost more than half its seats and fell to third place in the election last October. In a speech before Sunday’s vote, Mulcair took responsibility for the defeat but urged party members to “keep standing with me”.
Mulcair led in opinion polls when the general election campaign started. His party, with the second most seats in the House of Commons, had been the official opposition. But the center-left Liberals rode a late surge to a majority victory under the charismatic leadership of Trudeau.
During the campaign, Mulcair promised to balance the budget if elected, in a bid to bolster the party’s economic credentials. But the stand alienated many grassroots supporters who wanted change after nearly a decade of Conservative austerity.
Trudeau’s Liberals outflanked the New Democrats on the left, advocating deficit spending to spur the faltering economy.
Mulcair, who became NDP leader in 2012, will remain as the member of parliament for his Montreal electoral district.
Last month, Mulcair made international headlines when, referring to the frontrunner for the Republican nomination in the US presidential election, he said: “Donald Trump is a fascist. Let’s not kid ourselves, let’s not beat around the bush.”
