The path ahead

To start off, I'll heartily congratulate Thomas Mulcair on his strong victory in the NDP's leadership campaign. But it's well worth working on what comes next from day one of Mulcair's tenure.

Last night's inaugural interview with Peter Mansbridge already represented a great start on the party unit front - as Mulcair announced that Libby Davies will remain deputy leader, spoke regularly of working the the NDP's caucus in planning ahead and referred positively to the talented group of staff within the party at the moment.

But bringing the NDP together is only a small part of Mulcair's role as the party's new leader. And Mulcair should have two fairly distinct tasks in building the NDP for the years to come - though he seems well aware of both.

The part which may misleadingly seem easy is the need to put down roots in Quebec. Mulcair obviously starts out with the advantage of being a popular household name in his home province, meaning that he won't need to put a great deal of work into defining and proving himself personally.

But in order to make sure the party keeps growing, Mulcair will need to work on building the party beyond positive associations with its leader. And to the extent the NDP hopes to turn Quebec into a long-term base, he may have to go so far as to work on changing the political culture of his home province - trying to encourage the province's citizenry to join, donate and otherwise get personally involved in the NDP in a way it hasn't for any party in a long time.

Fortunately, there doesn't figure to be much standing in Mulcair's way, as a Bloc turning to the right under Daniel Paille may prove particularly ill-suited to try to maintain its support against a popular progressive leader. But Quebec party-building will still be no easy feat.

Meanwhile, the rest of Canada will see the usual battle to define the leader of the opposition.

On that front, Mulcair doesn't yet have a ton of name recognition or personal connection with voters across much of the country. And it'll likely take a combination of an effective personal performance in leading the charge against an austerity budget, a tireless effort to meet as many people personally as he can, and an immediate ad campaign to have any chance of at least keeping Mulcair in at least neutral territory (with room for growth in the years to come) again the inevitable Con barrage of smears and attack ads.

Of course, it's worth noting that the mirror-image problems may have a common solution. If Mulcair can foster increased dialogue and connections between the Quebec progressive political culture which adores him and citizens across Canada who are currently more inclined to vote and donate but aren't yet sold on him personally, that could go a long way toward taking care of both immediate priorities in relatively short order - while also ensuring that "unite the left behind the NDP" becomes a long-term reality.