Mulcair’s long way ’round

NEW DEMOCRATIC PARTY LEADER Tom Mulcair has gone far as a political free agent, moving between parties as circumstances change.

But he has lots of company on the Quebec political landscape. While many remember when Mulcair served as environment minister in the Liberal Quebec government of former Premier Jean Charest, they also recall that Charest himself was a former federal Progressive Conservative minister before taking over the Liberal leadership in his home province.

Such switches are partly a result of the province’s unique political history. In Quebec, the Conservatives and the NDP do not run candidates provincially, making the Quebec Liberal Party the only provincial option for federalists.

So, in 1994, when Mulcair, then a McGill University law graduate and an NDP supporter, entered provincial politics, the Quebec Liberals were his only viable choice.

Indeed, Mulcair’s federalist credentials are impeccable. Before his political career, Mulcair was a lawyer for Alliance Quebec, defending anglophone merchants who ran afoul of Quebec’s French-language commercial signs laws.

Like Charest, Mulcair is a child of English- and French-speaking parents (the second of 10 children). And, like Charest, he self-identifies as being Irish.

The ride has been bumpy at times. In 2002, Mulcair got into a “no holds barred” argument with Yves Duhaime, a former Parti Québécois finance minister, accusing Duhaime of influence peddling.

The two politicians were guests on a television program hosted by Jean Lapierre, a former Liberal MP in Ottawa and co-founder of the Bloc Québécois. Lapierre witnessed the incident, which occurred after his program.

Duhaime sued Mulcair for defamation, winning $95,000 in damages. Charest’s Liberals picked up the tab.

But in 2006, Mulcair and Charest had a falling out. Charest planned to privatize Mont Orford, a provincial park, to allow a local developer to build condos.

Mulcair, as environment minister, was unreserved in his opposition to that plan. Charest then removed Mulcair from the environment portfolio.

Reporters, posted outside a Liberal caucus meeting in which Charest and Mulcair aired their dispute over the park, heard an angry exchange. After the caucus meeting, Charest and Mulcair posed for a handshake. But the icy smiles of the two Irish brawlers betrayed their continuing rancour.

Leaving the provincial Liberals, Mulcair entered the NDP fold, but not until after first sounding out the federal Liberals and Conservatives. He got his break in 2007, winning a byelection in Outremont for the NDP, a formerly safe Liberal seat in Montreal.

Now, it appears that Mulcair has a real chance to lead Canada’s first federal NDP government. If that happens, his experience with other parties, and other levels of government, may well prove useful.