Chisholm exits NDP leadership race
Posted Dec 21, 2011 01:22:11 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
NDP MP Robert Chisholm says he’s officially out of the running for the New Democratic Party leadership.
Chisholm was selling himself as the only candidate with enough leadership experience, but acknowledges now that the majority of party members need him to be able to speak fluent French, and although he’s been working hard on becoming bilingual, he won’t be good enough by March 24th, when the new leader is chosen.
“I was prepared to do whatever it would take to get me as far along as I could, but there is no way, come day one, of the new leadership and that’s what people are looking for,” Chisholm told the Rick Howe Show Wednesday.
“I was upfront and said that I didn’t have French,” he continued. “I didn’t speak French. But that I had been working at it since May and I would learn. I was committed to do that.”
The former Nova Scotia NDP leader ran into his first big hurtle when he spoke English throughout the French partition of the first leaders’ debate.
Chisholm says he’s grateful for the support he’s received from NS Premier Darrell Dexter, former Ontario NDP leader Howard Hampton, and NDP MP Ryan Cleary.
“I’ve been getting lots of support,” he told the talk show. “I think people locally know me better. They know what I’m able to do, and what I’m capable of doing. They have confidence in me. They wanted me to go out across the country and talk about those things with other Canadians.”
Eight candidates remain in the running to replace the late Jack Layton: Niki Ashton, Nathan Cullen, Paul Dewar, Thomas Mulcair, Peggy Nash, Romeo Saganash, Martin Singh and Brian Topp.
