OTTAWA—Brian Topp has launched his bid to be NDP leader, vowing that he will topple Stephen Harper’s Conservatives and continue Jack Layton’s fight for “social justice.”

“We are one beautiful step away from being elected as the government of Canada,” Topp said Monday, as he kicked off the leadership race in a burst of bravado.

Topp unveiled his leadership bid with a powerful endorsement from the party’s eminence grise — former leader Ed Broadbent — that he alone has the talents needed to lead the NDP.

And his Quebec credentials got the nod from Françoise Boivin, a respected NDP MP from Gatineau, who said Topp understands the province just as Layton did.

Topp pledged to carry on the work started by Layton, who died last month of cancer, saying his top priority will be to “stop the slide to an unequal Canada.”

“No one can replace Jack but we can honour him by making sure his dream of social justice will never die. We can carry on his work. That’s my pledge today,” he said.

Topp was with Layton in his final days but refused to say whether the ailing leader urged him to run for the job.

“We talked about a great deal of things . . . the conversations between Jack and me are going to stay between the two of us,” Topp said.

Noting that all the potential contenders had been recruited by Layton, Topp added, “No one gets to claim Jack Layton’s mantle.”

The fluently bilingual Topp highlighted his Quebec roots — born in Longueuil, raised on Montreal’s south shore — all helpful background for a party that has 59 of its 103 seats in Quebec.

But he also pitched his time serving as deputy chief of staff to former Saskatchewan premier Roy Romanow for seven years, experience he said that put him at the “heart” of a successful NDP government.

Since then, he’s been a veteran of the NDP’s backrooms, serving as the party’s national campaign director and running its election war rooms and, most recently, as party president, a job he will step down from during his leadership run.

Broadbent was effusive in his praise of Topp, saying bluntly that the party strategist “stands clearly above all the others in the qualities that matter most.

“No other candidate has his breadth of political experience and judgment,” Broadbent said.

And the respected former leader made no apologies for backing a contender from outside caucus, as he did in 2003 when he supported Layton’s successful leadership bid.

“I saw in Jack Layton a real leader, a person who could win, who could build the party, who could one day be prime minister. I went through the same process,” Broadbent said.

“He or she could be Canada’s next prime minister. That’s how Canadians will be making their judgment. That’s how we New Democrats must decide,” Broadbent said.

“This is the big leagues,” he said.

Topp, who says he has never run for public office before because of family considerations, committed to run if he doesn’t win the leadership. But he was vague on whether he would try to win the Toronto-Danforth seat held by Layton, saying the timing of that by-election is out of his hands.

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Topp is the first candidate to officially declare his intentions to run in the leadership that will culminate March 24 with a leadership convention in Toronto.

NDP MPs Peter Julian, Thomas Mulcair, Peggy Nash and Paul Dewar are among those also considering leadership bids. Another possible contender, NDP MP Megan Leslie said she’s also undecided but is thinking about it “constantly.” She said she expects to decide this week.

With files from Joanna Smith

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