Paul Dewar announces his candidacy for the federal NDP leadership at a news conference.
Ottawa Centre MP Paul Dewar has tossed his hat into the ring of contenders for the leadership of the federal NDP, putting Centretown and its environs into the national spotlight while raising questions about how he’ll juggle his campaign to replace Jack Layton in the coming months with his duties representing constituents.
At a news conference earlier this month, Dewar expressed hope that the NDP leadership campaign will inform Canadians about a side of Ottawa not normally seen in media coverage of national politics.
Dewar is widely expected to face an uphill battle against leading contenders Brian Topp, the NDP strategist and national president who secured an endorsement from party icon Ed Broadbent, and Montreal-area MP Thomas Mulcair, the NDP’s only Quebec member prior to May’s federal election.
Joanne St. Lewis, an assistant law professor at the University of Ottawa and a longtime Dewar supporter, said the MP has a strong and faithful following in his home constituency that will serve as the base for his leadership campaign.
However, constituents such as Jordan Charbonneau, acting president of the Centretown Citizens Community Association, raised some concern about how Dewar will manage to balance his current duties as an MP with the time he must now devote to campaigning for his party’s top job.
“As a candidate for NDP leader and, potentially, as the leader of that party, Dewar is necessarily going to have a harder time addressing the needs of constituents than he does now,” says Charbonneau. “Whether constituents will notice a decrease in quality of his role as our representative will depend on how much work and resources Dewar is willing to put into his job.”
Riccardo Filippone, an NDP staffer at the party’s down Ottawa national offices, says certain concessions are made by MPs upon entering the leadership race.
“If the candidate is a critic, he must resign his portfolio,” says Filippone.
For Dewar, that means surrendering his position as foreign affairs critic so that his time spent campaigning does not infringe on his role as shadow minister.
St. Lewis dismissed the notion that Dewar’s leadership bid will leave his constituents lacking representation ahead of next spring’s leadership convention.
“I see zero issue with this,” she says. “What Paul has is a commitment to community, which means listening and being informed by ordinary people.
“He is a devoted MP and I am very confident that he can meet the challenges of the leadership campaign while continuing to be fully engaged with both his constituency and his ongoing responsibilities in the House.”
Although he admits that he does “not follow his activity closely,” Charbonneau says Dewar “has always appeared to me to be a warm, honest man who is earnestly seeking to do his best in his work.”
The balancing act between MP and leadership hopeful will continue until Layton’s successor is chosen on March 24.