theQuestion: Should voters trust NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair after learning he considered working for Stephen Harper and the Conservatives?*
The headline was intoxicating and the details delicious. Thomas Mulcair, valiant leader of the federal NDP, was allegedly just a “yes” away from joining the Conservatives as a senior adviser to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Yes, you heard that correctly. In 2007, Mulcair was involved in a series of escalating discussions with key Tory reps.
Details of the talks were reported in a feature article by Maclean’s last week. According to sources, Mulcair wanted $300,000 per year, nearly twice what was on the table, for the role of president of the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy. This would have been a coup for both Mulcair and the Tories.
Mulcair would have taken the reins of the NRTEE, a prestigious advisory agency to the federal government on sustainable development. The Tories would have snagged an experienced cabinet-level politician with a reputation as a tenacious advocate for the environment. Mulcair had just resigned as the environment minister in Jean Charest’s Quebec Liberal government.
The Tories did not overlook that Mulcair had a high profile in his native Quebec. As a part of the deal, it was intimated Mulcair would run for the Conservatives in the 2008 election. Mulcair denies this point.
Mulcair also denies that he turned down the job over money. And it is within this denial that serious questions about his values and trustworthiness are raised. Mulcair admits to being in talks to join the Conservatives via the advisory role. He told Maclean’s after being first approached by Quebec Conservative Lawrence Cannon in 2006, he himself followed up with Cannon’s chief of staff and then directly with Harper’s office.
Mulcair said, as quoted in Macleans, that the “last exchange was with then chief of staff Ian Brodie … [t]he only subject was Kyoto and climate change. He made it clear that my support for Kyoto would have to change. That, for me, was out of the question … talks broke off on climate change.”
Incredible. If you take Mulcair at his word, it’s clear he was ready to abandon then what he now asks Canadians to believe are his deeply held positions advocating for the poor, homeless, middleclass — increased minimum wage, national daycare, eliminating corporate tax breaks, ending military involvement in the middle east.
Talks fell apart on climate change. What about everything else? How can you trust him? The attack ads are writing themselves.