Paul Dewar makes his pitch at the NDP leadership convention.
The dream ended surprisingly quickly.
Barely 12 hours after greeting throngs of supporters in his crowded hospitality suite in downtown Toronto, with Charlie Angus belting the song “Rocket 69” on his acoustic guitar in the background, NDP leadership candidate Paul Dewar was visibly shaken when the results of the first ballot results placed him fifth in a field of seven.
The Ottawa Centre MP, who internal party polling had placed as high as third, received only 4,883 votes – 7.5 per cent – of the opening round’s total on March 24.
“It was a bit of a surprise in terms of the numbers. But I also knew that this was going to be wide-open,” an introspective Dewar said afterward.
His next move was to announce his withdrawal from the race.
Dewar stopped short of endorsing a competitor, but freed his supporters to make their own choice for leader.
“I thought it was important to let people go where they wanted to,” he said.
His right-hand man, MP Charlie Angus swiftly decided to support the frontrunner Thomas Mulcair.
“Mulcair is the other person who can lead this country,” Angus told reporters.
“In my region, Timmins-James Bay people are very engaged with the NDP. Paul Dewar had a lot of support in my region . . . I heard some people who said ‘if Paul Dewar doesn’t make it, (Mulcair) is our vote back home.’ "
Despite the 49-year-old’s imaginative use of hip-hop and fiery rhetoric against Prime Minister Harper the day before, his faltering use of French was widely cited as the main reason for his poor convention showing.
The NDP’s gains in Quebec, clinching 58 of 75 House of Commons seats last May, meant competency in French was essential to lead the Official Opposition.
One Quebec NDP MP, Gatineau’s Françoise Boivin, cited Dewar’s lack of French fluency as the “only glitch in his campaign.”
“A lot of people realize, because of our success in Quebec, you definitely need to be bilingual.”
The fear of losing Quebec forced members in the 11th hour before the first ballot was closed to vote against him, according to Boivin.
“Other than the language glitch, my hats off to him. He was and is a great guy,” said the Brian Topp supporter.
Interim NDP Leader Nycole Turmel declined to comment on Dewar specifically, but she said that the system of voting left three “fully bilingual” candidates on the table – Nathan Cullen, Brian Topp, and Thomas Mulcair.
Mulcair eventually won after four excruciating ballots; Topp placed second and Cullen third.
“We had seven great candidates (on first ballot) and I can work with any of them. It’s up to the membership to choose which of them is the best to represent the party.” said Turmel.
Dewar said he never hid the fact that his French was still a work in progress.
He said he thought that other caucus and party supporters would be able to see beyond his still-improving French language skills.
“I had my Quebec colleagues come on board who thought ‘it’s good enough and he’ll be able to carry our party and not only keep Quebec but grow outside.’ ”
After announcing his bid for the leadership, Dewar enlisted the aid of a French- language tutor. The tutor travelled with him across the country in the campaign.
“I made great progress throughout and earned a lot of respect from people,” Dewar said.
In the end, his hard work failed to convince enough of the 131,000 party members across the country to select him as leader.
Dewar, who was the NDP’s high-profile foreign affairs critic before announcing his leadership bid last October, has indicated that he will serve in whatever capacity Mulcair assigns to him. He is widely expected to retain the foreign affairs shadow portfolio.