Tom Mulcair

Thomas Joseph Mulcair (born October 24, 1954) is a Canadian lawyer and retired politician who served as the leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP) from 2012 to 2017 and leader of the Official Opposition from 2012 to 2015. He was elected to the House of Commons in 2007 and sat as the member of Parliament (MP) for Outremont until 2018. Before entering federal politics, Mulcair served as the member of the National Assembly of Quebec (MNA) for Chomedey from 1994 to 2007, sitting as a Quebec Liberal. He was the environment minister of Quebec from 2003 until 2006 in Premier Jean Charest's government. Mulcair was a senior civil servant in the Quebec provincial government, ran a private law practice, and taught law at the university level. Mulcair joined the federal NDP in 1974 and was the MNA for Chomedey in Laval from 1994 to 2007, holding the seat for the Quebec Liberal Party. In 2003, he was selected by Premier Jean Charest to be the minister of sustainable development, environment and parks, where he passed a bill recognizing the right to live in a healthy environment and respect for biodiversity into the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms in 2006. Mulcair later resigned from cabinet in 2006 after opposing a development proposal in Mont-Orford National Park. After his departure from Quebec politics, Mulcair was courted by federal political parties. In April 2007, he announced that he would run as the NDP candidate in Outremont. Mulcair contested a by-election in September, winning and becoming the second NDP MP to be elected in Quebec, and the only member of the NDP caucus from Quebec at the time. NDP leader Jack Layton named Mulcair as the party's Quebec lieutenant and co-deputy leader, and he held the seat in the 2008 election....