Thomas Mulcair touts Linda McQuaig for new waterfront riding

OTTAWA—NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair appears to have mapped out a new political future for Linda McQuaig — as a candidate in a riding being created along Toronto’s waterfront.

McQuaig, an author and former Star columnist, made a strong showing in Monday’s byelection in Toronto Centre, but lost by about 5,000 votes to Liberal Chrystia Freeland.

On Wednesday, as Freeland was arriving for her first Liberal caucus meeting in Ottawa, Mulcair was talking up McQuaig’s chances in another riding: Spadina—Fort York, which will stretch along Toronto’s waterfront from the Don Valley to Dufferin Street.

Part of this new riding is being carved out of the current Toronto Centre riding, which is being radically altered by boundary changes that come into effect in the 2015 election.

“Take one of those new ridings. It’s called Fort York. Take Monday’s results. Superimpose it on Fort York. Guess what. Linda McQuaig,” Mulcair told reporters. “You haven’t heard the last from her. She’ll be in the House of Commons after the next election with that type of support,” Mulcair told reporters.

McQuaig was non-committal on Monday night when asked about her future political plans, but Mulcair’s comments appear to indicate that the NDP is doing some serious, advance planning with respect to McQuaig, not to mention the looming boundary shuffle in Toronto.

“Greater Toronto is going to have more than 60 seats in the next election. It’s a key battleground,” Mulcair said. “We’ve increased substantially in the Greater Toronto (Area) and that’s a fantastic thing for us,” Mulcair said.

Mulcair’s comments were also interesting for what they signalled about the future of Trinity—Spadina MP Olivia Chow, who now represents a riding that will be partly swallowed up by the new Spadina—Fort York creation.

Chow is said to be considering a run for the mayor’s job in Toronto, which would rule her out as a possible candidate in the new riding.

Freeland did not respond to questions about whether she was hoping for a rematch with McQuaig in 2015. Liberal support in Toronto Centre was believed to be stronger in the northern part of the riding, which will also be carved away, to help create the new riding of University—Rosedale.

Freeland said she was focused at the moment on learning the ropes in Parliament and picking up her work as co-chair of an economic advisory panel to leader Justin Trudeau. She and Trudeau said they are working on coming up with some solid, economic-policy ideas in time for the Liberal convention in Montreal in February.

Trudeau also said the party is busy finding candidates for all the new ridings being created for 2015.

“The Liberal party has a real challenge right now. We’re facing a situation where there is an extraordinary number of really great candidates, looking at the new Ontario ridings,” Trudeau said.