After losing one floor crosser, the dwindling NDP may be about to lose another MP

OTTAWA — Soon, the New Democrats could be reduced to a caucus of five.

After Nunavut MP Lori Idlout’s surprise floor-crossing to the Liberals, questions are swirling around Quebec MP Alexandre Boulerice’s looming decision to run for Quebec politics.

Boulerice said last month that he was seriously considering running in an upcoming nomination race for the provincial democratic socialist party Québec Solidaire (QS) in time for the Quebec election, which is scheduled to be taking place this October.

Clearly, Boulerice will have to come to a decision sooner rather than later.

QS director of communications Quentin Janel told National Post that the nomination process for the Montreal riding of Gouin — considered one of the only safe seats for QS and which overlaps with Boulerice’s federal riding — will be open starting March 25.

That is only days before New Democrats select their new leader at a party convention in Winnipeg.

Janel said he could not exactly say when the nomination process in Gouin would end, only that its length would depend on the number of people who are interested in the job.

So far, only Boulerice has publicly said he is interested in that riding for QS.

“I’m thinking about it more seriously now than ever, maybe because I won five consecutive elections in Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie. I’ve been here for 15 years,” he told reporters last month when he was first questioned about the rumours about him leaving to go to QS.

“I can continue, or maybe I can go somewhere else and have new challenges.”

The 52-year-old MP said he was still weighing personal considerations.

“Do I want to go to the National Assembly (of Quebec)? Do I have the energy? Are there family issues? It’s mostly personal reflections that could play a role. But one thing is certain: it has nothing to do with the NDP leadership race,” he said at the time.

Since then, Boulerice has been silent on ongoing reflexion to run for QS.

On Monday, the MP refused to answer a reporter’s questions about his political ambitions, arguing that he wanted to focus his remarks on the conflict in the Middle East. And on Wednesday, he stayed mute when another reporter said he was probably leaving soon.

“He’s got a tough decision to make. My heart’s just really with him on this one. I think he would like to be in both places,” said Erin Morrison, who served as deputy chief of staff to NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and is now vice-president of Texture Communications.

“The timing is very unfortunate, both for Alex, who I’m sure would like to be a part of the rebuild, and for the NDP, which really can only withstand just so many more hits.”

Morrison said the rebuild of the party will start with choosing a new leader and will likely move through British Columbia and Southern Ontario. She did not mention Quebec.

“These things are all unpleasant, but they are far from existential for the NDP,” she said.

Morrison said other parties have been reduced to a handful of MPs in the past — notably the Progressive Conservatives under Kim Campbell who ended with two seats after the 1993 election and the Bloc Québécois which was reduced to four seats in 2011.

“This happens to parties, and they do come back from it,” she said.

Boulerice’s decision to jump ship to another legislature seems inevitable given that QS delegates voted overwhelmingly last month to create an exception to their rule that only a woman or a non-binary person may be eligible to run in a riding that is held by the party.

With that hurdle out of the way, Boulerice is free to run in Gouin.

— With files from Christopher Nardi.

National Post calevesque@postmedia.com

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