MONTEBELLO, QUE.—Thomas Mulcair is beginning to see a pattern in his party’s troubles in Toronto.

The NDP leader said that in three elections in a row, at all three levels of government, New Democrats in Toronto were beaten by parties or candidates who campaigned to the left of where they ended up governing.

“What happened in Toronto was a subset of the campaign as a whole. I think that the Liberals managed very much the same exercise they managed provincially last time around, which was to convince people that they had the intention of doing a lot of the progressive things the NDP would have done,” Mulcair told the Star Tuesday.

“We’ve got to learn how to deal with that, I think, straight up . . . . Whether it was in Olivia (Chow’s) campaign for the mayoralty, or the last provincial election. That’s come up a lot in our post-election analysis, that we’ve got to learn how to deal with that.”

How exactly Mulcair and the NDP intend to address that issue — assuming they’re correct, and that is the issue — will have to wait. Mulcair said he does not want to prejudice the findings of the “lessons learned” report, expected to be delivered in March by former MP Paul Dewar and party president Rebecca Blaikie.

Mulcair was in scenic Montebello, Que., on Tuesday for a caucus retreat to prepare for the return of the House of Commons next week. But discussions at the two-day retreat with staff and MPs inevitably look back to last October’s bitter election results, and ahead to April, when Mulcair will face a referendum on his leadership at the party’s convention in Edmonton.

Speaking with the Star, Mulcair explained in broad strokes how he intends to take the party forward after an election that saw many of the party’s most experienced MPs defeated.

It’s not simply poking holes in the majority Liberals’ progressive bona fides, or pointing out when their achievements fall short of their promises (but he’s happy to do that, too).

Instead, Mulcair is trying to shift the conversation back to central NDP themes: addressing inequality, fighting privatization of public services, and pushing for “true equality” rather than “equality of opportunity.” Those themes were notably absent from the party’s campaign messaging.

“It means using government to bring about a positive result to reduce inequality, in particular. I’ve always viewed the No. 1 role of a social democrat to reduce inequality,” Mulcair said.

And Mulcair is pledging to change his leadership style, as well. He said since taking over the reigns after Jack Layton’s death, most of his efforts have been focused on the parliamentary side — a role that won him plaudits from pundits for his prosecution of the Harper government. But he now says that he needs to focus more on the party, and especially the grassroots activists that will ultimately decide his fate as leader.

“My gut feeling is that this is something I have to work on,” Mulcair said. “As party leader, I’m going to start taking it on myself, this weekend I’m meeting with the executive, and I’m going to continue this work in the ridings.”

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That’s the pitch, anyway, Mulcair is taking to his party’s April convention. Mulcair declined to give a number when asked how much support he’d need to garner to stay on as leader — although a senior New Democrat, speaking privately, set the bar at 70 per cent.

Mulcair said he’s heartened by the level of “goodwill” he’s felt in his meetings at the riding level, but reiterated that he’s taking nothing for granted.

“This is the first election that I ran as leader in. People know the history of the party, they know who we are, we know who we are,” Mulcair said. “But I think more than ever that Canadians know who we are after the last campaign.”

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