page_title: Tom Mulcair
section_title: Deputy leader
hierarchical_section_title: Tom Mulcair / Federal politics / Deputy leader
caption_attribution_description: New Democrat Leader Jack Layton and Tom Mulcair in Montreal, Quebec on April 14, 2011.
context_page_description: Thomas Joseph Mulcair PC is a Canadian retired politician from Quebec who served as the leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada from 2012 to 2017. A Member of Parliament for the electoral district of Outremont in Quebec from 2007 to 2018, he was selected as the leader of the NDP at a leadership election on March 24, 2012, on the fourth ballot. He then served as Leader of the Official Opposition until the NDP lost just over half of its seats in the 2015 federal election and resumed third-place status. During a leadership review vote, held at the 2016 federal NDP convention, 52% of the delegates voted to hold a leadership election. Mulcair stated he would remain leader until the party chooses a replacement. Convention delegates, in an emergency motion, voted to give the party up to two years to choose a new head. Mulcair later announced in May 2016 that he would retire from politics, and would not contest his riding in the next federal election. He resigned his seat on August 3, 2018 in order to accept a position in the political science department of the University of Montreal. He has also been hired as an on-air political analyst for CJAD, CTV News Channel, and TVA.
context_section_description: Mulcair was sworn in on October 12, 2007. Earlier, he was named co-deputy leader of the NDP along with Libby Davies. As the party's Quebec lieutenant, he worked to improve the standard of translation for the campaign's francophone party materials, with Layton's support.
  On October 14, 2008, Mulcair was re-elected as the MP for Outremont, making him the first New Democrat to win a riding in Quebec during a federal general election. He defeated the federal Liberal candidate, Sébastien Dhavernas, by 14,348 votes to 12,005 (a margin of 6.4%).
  In the 2011 federal election, despite facing a challenge from former federal justice minister Liberal Martin Cauchon, Mulcair was re-elected once more with 56.4% of the popular vote, 21,916 to 9,204.  The NDP became the Official Opposition for the first time ever, mainly on the strength of winning 59 of Quebec's 75 ridings, including Mulcair's. This was a notable political event, nicknamed the "orange wave".
caption: Jack Layton and Tom Mulcair in Montreal, 2011
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