The NDP will decide at its April convention in Edmonton whether it wants Tom Mulcair to lead it into the 2019 federal election.

That’s when party stalwarts will vote on whether they are satisfied with his performance as leader in the wake of the NDP’s disappointing finish in last year’s election.

While a mathematical win will be 50% of the vote plus one, a party leader generally needs to score at least 70%, and preferably higher, in order not to die the death of a thousand cuts from within.

If it was up to us, and it definitely isn’t, our vote would be for keeping Mulcair.

First, he’s the best debater among the party leaders in the Commons.

Second, we admired his ethical stand in support of the niqab in the last election, even though we disagreed with it and it cost him votes in Quebec.

That said, political leaders who stand for things, even when it’s inconvenient, are rare and should not be easily discarded.

Third, and most important, Mulcair demonstrated by his platform that he understands that if the NDP is ever to form a national government, it has to convince Canadians it can be trusted with the nation’s finances.

That’s why Mulcair campaigned on balanced budgets and delivering social services in a fiscally responsible manner.

Too many NDPers, including some calling for Mulcair’s head, believe there’s a huge block of voters out there prepared to back a party that advocates bigger deficits than Prime Minister Justin Trudeau campaigned on.

They have forgotten that successful prairie socialism in Canada -- unlike its failed eastern Canadian cousin -- has a history of expanding the welfare state, while being fiscally responsible.

NDP icon Tommy Douglas, the father of medicare, delivered 17 straight balanced budgets as the premier of Saskatchewan and religiously paid down provincial debt.

That’s because he believed that massive government debt meant spending taxpayers’ money paying interest to foreign money lenders, not helping Canadians.

True, Trudeau won the election by promising to spend money the Liberals don’t have.

We’ll see where that leaves him a few years from now when the payments start to come due.

To us, Mulcair understands the long game, which is why he deserves another shot at prime minister in 2019.