OTTAWA 鈥� "Several" current NDP MPs will not be running again in 2019, on top of those who have already announced they won't seek re-election, according to former NDP leader Tom Mulcair.
"I know that a lot of my Quebec colleagues have already announced that they're not running and several others have confided in me that they're not going to run," Mulcair said on CTV's Power Play.
"I think that's an obvious problem. We had a pretty strong 44-member caucus, really representing all parts of the country except Atlantic where the Liberals of course cleaned the table in the last election," Mulcair said, referencing the number of NDP MPs who came into this Parliament following the 2015 election.
Several New Democrats have already announced they will not be running under NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh's banner this year.
In Quebec, MPs Romeo Saganash and Helene Laverdiere have said they will not be NDP candidates in the next election. There's also B.C. MP Fin Donnelly who isn't running again, while two others in his province, Sheila Malcolmson and Kennedy Stewart, have already left to pursue provincial and local politics respectively.
Ontario MPs Irene Mathyssen and David Christopherson are also not planning to campaign for their seats in the House of Commons again, nor is lone Alberta MP Linda Duncan.
Mulcair made this comment responding to a question about the potential that another longtime NDP, MP Nathan Cullen, may not be running again. First reported in the Terrace Standard, a local publication in Cullen's riding, he has yet to make up his mind about running in 2019. He wouldn't say either way when asked by 麻豆影视.
Mulcair said if Cullen elects not to run again it would be "an incredible loss for the team."
This series of MPs planning to leave federal politics at the end of this Parliament has come as Singh has tried to keep the party on track, amid low polling and fundraising numbers.
"We're going to have a strong team come the next election, we鈥檙e going to have a great team of MPs that will be returning, as well as a bunch of new exciting candidates that we'll present in the upcoming election," Singh said back in October about these coming departures.
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