What will it take to beat Harper? Thomas Mulcair has a few ideas
OTTAWA — The New Democratic Party must prove it can manage money better than the Conservatives if it hopes to form the next government, says NDP MP Thomas Mulcair.
"If the approach that we take is one that shows that we are conscious that there are limits to what government can do, then the NDP will win the next election," Mulcair said in an exclusive interview with iPolitics.ca as he prepared to launch his campaign for the NDP's leadership later Thursday.
"If we continue to say what we should spend money on without saying where we will get money from, then I think that the public might look at us and say, 'Well, we don't think that you are going to be able to do this job.'
"So the trick for us is to convince Canadians that we can and do have a team of men and women who can manage the public purse in the public interest and keep things on target with regard to budget and administration."
However, Mulcair conceded many Canadians are skeptical about the NDP's ability to handle the country's government or the economy — in large part because of the example set by Bob Rae, who served as NDP premier of Ontario before later jumping to the federal Liberals where he is now interim leader.
"Rigorous public administration is going to have to be the hallmark of any NDP government. We're going to be watched. People have a very hesitant view with regard to the NDP's ability to actually manage the public purse, that's mostly because the biggest province we have ever managed had huge problems under Bob Rae."
"On the other hand, and it is important to note, that according to the analysis of the Canada's own Finance Department, it's those provinces with NDP governments such as Saskatchewan under Lorne Calvert and B.C and Manitoba, that have had the best track record in terms of prudent public administration and balanced books."
While the Conservatives talk a lot about being good public administrators, their spending has outstripped inflation during the past five years and now they are poised to "chop wildly" at public spending without regard to maintaining services for Canadians, he said. "My concern is that Stephen Harper is not going to have those priorities. That he is going to cut blindly. Instead of using a scalpel, he'll go after public spending with a rusty machete."
Mulcair is well known as Quebec's former environment minister whose refusal to allow condos to be built in a provincial park triggered his departure from cabinet and for his role in improving the NDP's political fortunes in Quebec.
However, it is his track record as a public administrator in Quebec and Manitoba and as head of the Office des Professions where he took on the province's doctors over the alleged sexual abuse of patients that Mulcair will likely highlight as he sets out on his six-month quest for the NDP's top job.
Mulcair will be one of several candidates vying to succeed Jack Layton, including former party president Brian Topp, who has already garnered the support of several prominent members of the NDP and some of the party's top organizers.
The NDP leadership race was barely underway when Mulcair was targeted by a whisper campaign with anonymous sources telling reporters that he is abrasive, hard to get along with, that he isn't a team player.
Mulcair suspects some within the party see him as a threat.
"I have to be very understanding of the fact that the behaviour that I am witnessing where the old guard in the party, the party brass has simply said we don't want anything to change, we don't like the types of changes we have seen, we want to stay with one of our guys."
When Layton assigned him to the "Quebec Project" to grow the NDPs support in Quebec, it also ruffled feathers, said Mulcair.
"The Quebec project threatened a lot of people. You can imagine that some staffers who had gotten used to having very senior positions without having ever made it a priority to learn a single word of French were feeling threatened. You can imagine that people who were comfortable with a much smaller NDP will always feel threatened by somebody who says, 'No, we can actually do this.'"
Mulcair admits his passion for championing causes he believes in and refusing to back down has also earned him some enemies over the years and may have fed the reputation he is abrasive.
While Mulcair would like to see the NDP "become the biggest tent possible for all the progressive forces in Canada," he doesn't see a merger with the Liberals at the current time. "It would be a huge mistake for the NDP to try to merge with the Liberals," he said. "The best thing we can do is offer our own solutions, connect with the Canadian public, convince them that we have a credible track record, that we have good people who are capable of providing prudent public administration. That is the only thing we should be doing.
"I will never be talking during this campaign, directly or indirectly, about merging with the Liberals."
To grow the NDP's support, Mulcair says the party has to maintain its gains in Quebec and work on provinces like Saskatchewan where the party has support but no MPs. "One of the things that we can do is simply acknowledge the fact that in Quebec we now have lots of trees with few roots. In places where we have deep roots, like Saskatchewan, we no longer have any trees. So we have to find out what's been missing in terms of linking with people on the level of their values. That's what we were able to do in Quebec."
In the end, however, NDP members will have to ask themselves a key question, he said. "The most important thing in terms of the question that people have to be asking themselves is who is the best placed to beat Stephen Harper in the next election."
Mulcair now has six months to try to convince New Democrats he's the one who can do that.
