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Analysis

EDMONTON — Federal NDP Leader Tom Mulcair suffered an unprecedented defeat Sunday as 52 per cent of delegates at the party’s convention in downtown Edmonton voted in favour of naming a new leader. Though Mulcair will remain in charge until a replacement is chosen, his party has decided its future lies elsewhere.

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It is the first example in history of a federal party leader failing to secure the minimum level of support from members of his party required to win a confidence vote.

The astonishingly low rate of support for Mulcair revealed a deep split in a party still reeling from last fall’s unexpected election loss. Though the NDP looked set to form government when the writ dropped last year, as the campaign wore on the New Democrats were outflanked on their left by the more telegenic Justin Trudeau, and ended up finishing a distant third.

An unusual confluence of factors in the last few months and through the weekend — open dispute between opposing factions within the party, a global swell of support behind anti-establishment politicians and the convention’s location, which encouraged a strong turnout from Alberta in a party otherwise dominated by central Canada — led to Mulcair losing support from both the radical left and the moderate wings of his party.