Mulcair hits his stride

Remember that Harper line, “If Thomas Mulcair wins, I win; if Thomas Mulcair loses, I win”?

Well, I think it’s closer to coming to pass.

NDP support in Quebec remains soft. And Mulcair is the tortoise of the NDP race — slow and steady.

Today, halfway through the race and the first candidate to have visited every province meeting hundreds of NDP delegates, Outremont MP Thomas Mulcair says things have turned around for the better.

“We’ve been on an ascending curve,” Mulcair said in a year-end interview with The Gazette. “Our campaign is picking up momentum week by week, day by day and it’s going in the right direction.”

Mulcair was just back from attending a meeting of the British Columbia NDP wing along with other leadership candidates. He proudly notes 200 people rotated through his campaign hospitality suite during the weekend.

Many signed up as supporters, other endorsements have been emerging and Mulcair is more pumped about the campaign than in the days last September when he was mulling over a run at the job to replace the late Jack Layton. …

Taking a step back to look at Mulcair’s past, as a person and a politician, two things stand out.

First, it’s clear part of him thrives in the underdog role. Second, his feisty style – well known to Quebecers – is something new to the rest of the country, which is accustomed to a more sedate NDP. …

Mulcair said he has mellowed.

“I was 39 when I arrived in politics. I wanted to prove myself,” Mulcair told L’Actualité in May. Now 56, Mulcair plays up his ability to work with a team, noting that when he launched his campaign he was joined on stage by 33 other MPs. Today he has 35.

Mulcair said he’s enjoying meeting NDP members from all over – sometimes informally. “I’ve been joking it’s been my Irish pub tour.”

Well, we’ll see. But combine that growing strength with the need to shore up the Quebec base, and I see a victorious leadership campaign narrative forming.

I’d say that the PM should be careful what he wishes for — Mulcair might be tougher than one thinks — but, you know, Harper had to know that line of his would leak. It’s too good for it not to be repeated. So there’s some sort of strategy at play here from the PMO…

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