New Democratic Party Leader Tom Mulcair might be a wolf in sheep’s clothing, politically speaking. Not for the country at large though. But for the NDP faithful.

Polls show the NDP could form the next government and one even pegs the party with a majority.

But this has largely been accomplished by the supposedly left-wing party selling itself by not appearing very NDP-ish.

On Wednesday the NDP leader said he was “not entertaining any thought” of running a deficit. He also recently committed $250 million to put 2,500 more police officers on the street.

And while Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau is “taxing the rich” by creating a new bracket on incomes over $200,000, Mulcair is doing no such thing.

This spells trouble for a number of reasons.

The party’s long-term base will be extremely unhappy if they arrive at the promised land of an NDP government only to find themselves governing from the centre for a four-year term.

If you thought the occasional flare-ups from corners of the Conservative Party about Stephen Harper not being socially conservative enough were newsworthy, you ain’t seen nothing yet.

The left has no qualms when it comes to tearing itself apart from within. When he was Ontario premier, then-NDP leader Bob Rae faced protests and interventions from his natural allies.

The federal New Democrats have seen far-left factions emerge over the decades to stop the party straying to the centre – the latest being the New Politics Initiative from the early 2000s.

It’s total cognitive dissonance to decline a tax for the rich while having Linda McQuaig, author of The Trouble With Billionaires and other far-left screeds, as a candidate.

If Mulcair does not become PM this year, you can bet the party’s socialist vultures will start to circle, calling for a leadership review — not due to his performance but to test his leftist credentials.

But many NDP members place purity over power and pragmatism. As such, they may not wait until after the election to attack Mulcair.

This happened last year during the Ontario provincial election. A number of prominent leftists wrote an open letter against NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, saying they were “deeply distressed” by her lack of bona fide left-wing policies and considered pulling their support.

The base’s skepticism of Mulcair’s sincerity has no doubt increased. First, they had to ignore the fact he’s a former Quebec Liberal. Then this June, reports resurfaced that Mulcair considered joining the Conservatives in 2007, a year before he first ran for the NDP in 2008 (Mulcair denies much of the story). Then that video emerged of Mulcair reciting conservative mantra and praising Margaret Thatcher in the Quebec legislature in 2001.

The NDP leader is currently hanging in a delicate balance. He could be attacked from rogue elements within his own party any day now for his centrist policies. But if he undertakes actions to pre-empt this, like introducing more far-left policy, it will scare away an electorate currently willing to give him the keys to 24 Sussex.

If he does in fact have more socialist friendly ideas that he’s just waiting to reveal until he gets into office, the public would be shocked and he’d lose his goodwill and mandate.

The solution? Stay the course in policy, but spend time rekindling the romance with the base. Remind them that the $15 daycare plan and the $15 minimum wage for federally-regulated workers are still front and centre.

Those policies are right in their wheelhouse. They’re the sort of “economics of optimism” that no conservative would come within miles of endorsing. It’s big government and socialist-inspired redistribution through and through. Mulcair needs to remind them they’ll have to choose their battles if they want to win them.

It’ll be a tough sell. Many NDPers and Conservatives, to their credit, are different than Liberals in that they’re not necessarily interested in power for power’s sake. They get involved in party politics because of a deeply rooted passion for the issues.

Mulcair’s pact with pragmatism does not mix well with such people.