NDP’s Quebec membership numbers no ‘handicap,’ says candidate Saganash
Former Cree leader turned NDP leadership candidate Romeo Saganash says he doesn’t believe the absence of an NDP provincial wing in Quebec is a “handicap” in the race to replace party leader Jack Layton who died from cancer in late August.
By Jorge Barrera
APTN National News
OTTAWA–Former Cree leader turned NDP leadership candidate Romeo Saganash says he doesn’t believe the absence of an NDP provincial wing in Quebec is a “handicap” in the race to replace party leader Jack Layton who died from cancer in late August.
Saganash, a Quebec MP for the riding of Abitibi-Baie-James-Nunavik, announced he was gunning for the NDP leadership Friday.
Saganash and Brian Topp, the NDP party president and immediate frontrunner, are so far the only two declared leadership candidates in the race, though several other MPs are expected to join in.
In an interview with APTN National News Monday, Saganash dismissed concerns raised by high-profile Quebec MP Thomas Mulcair who said candidates from Quebec were at a disadvantage in the leadership race because the NDP lacked a provincial wing there.
Mulcair, seen by many as a top NDP candidate, told reporters Monday that he was holding off declaring his intentions to run because he believed the numbers were against him.
Saganash admitted that the newness of the NDP in Quebec and its lack of a provincial base was a “challenge,” but it wasn’t enough to make him back off his leadership bid.
“It is definitely a challenge and every challenge brings an opportunity,” said Saganash. “We have our work cut out for us. Definitely it is not a handicap in my view, rather an opportunity.”
While the NDP has about 90,000 members, only about 1,600 are from Quebec.
Saganash also disagreed with Mulcair’s call for the NDP to launch a membership drive targeting the province. He said the NDP should launch a national membership drive, instead of focusing just on Quebec.
Mulcair said thousands of membership cards have been sold in British Columbia, where the party recently went through a leadership race, and in Manitoba and Ontario as a result of provincial elections, giving candidates from there an advantage.
Most of the NDP’s membership is based outside Quebec despite the majority of elected NDP MPs coming from the province.
Saganash said he plans to raise his profile among party members in the rest of Canada the old-fashioned way.
“I’ve learned in the past 30 years that it is a matter of going up to them, visiting them and talking to them,” he said. “A lot of people don’t know who Romeo Saganash is. I think this is a huge challenge that I am willing to take up. It is an important hill to climb.”
Saganash resigned as director of government relations and international affairs of the Grand Council of Crees to run in the last election against Bloc Quebecois incumbent Yvon Levesque.
During the election, Levesque was forced by his party to apologize after he said that Saganash’s Cree ancestry was a liability with voters in their constituency.
Saganash, who is making history as the first First Nations leader to vie for the leadership of a major federal political party, said he was focusing on convincing NDP members to back him because of his ideas.
“During the campaign I told the Cree…I am not asking the Cree to vote for me because I am Cree, but for the values I stand for,” said Saganash. “It is a very diversified riding. We have Inuit, Cree and Algonquin, we have Abitibi and James Bay non-Natives. When I said yes to Jack Layton I said yes to everybody, not just the Cree.”
Layton died from cancer on Aug. 22.
