OTTAWA—The New Democrats are expected to let Thomas Mulcair stay on as party leader following a crushing electoral result, letting him decide whether he wants to steer the orange team through some tough thinking about its choices and its future.

“He will not be pushed and anybody who does push will be quite publicly slapped,” said Robin Sears, a principal at Earnscliffe Strategy Group and former national director of the NDP, echoing the conclusion reached by about a dozen people close to the party who were interviewed, both on and off the record, about this choice.

Mulcair, 60, did not address the media Tuesday, but one source said he was telephoning all elected and defeated NDP MPs.

Others expected him to reach out to key figures in the New Democratic and progressive movement, such as provincial party leaders, in the coming days for insight and advice.

Mulcair had not yet spoken to Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, who publicly expressed her support for his continued leadership.

“Taking the party from where we are now, to rebuild our strength, is a job that he can do well,” she told reporters at Queen’s Park, although she acknowledged the damage hurt.

NDP MP Charlie Angus, who was re-elected in the northern Ontario riding of Timmins-James Bay, said he and Mulcair had a preliminary discussions by email Tuesday.

“I leave it to him to call that first caucus meeting and say, ‘Obviously we are going to learn lessons from this. Obviously things are going to change.’ We are in a new situation. We’ve lost some seats and we’ve gained some in new areas, and where does Tom see us over the next 18 months to four years, to get ready again?” Angus said Tuesday.

It remains unknown whether Mulcair will decide he is up for it, or for how long, and if the way he has operated during past tough calls is any guide, the final outcome will likely depend on a conversation with his wife and closest adviser, Catherine P. Mulcair, and their sons, Matthew and Gregory.

“I do know that Tom Mulcair is extremely resilient and that for him, politics is not about himself, it’s for the greater good. So if he thinks the greater good of the party and country is served by him staying, at least for awhile, he will do that. He is perfectly capable of putting his own feelings aside,” said Michael Byers, a UBC professor and former Layton environmental policy adviser who was also involved in Mulcair’s leadership campaign.

The consensus is that since a Liberal majority means there is no election on the immediate horizon, there is no urgency to the decision.

The post-election analysis of what exactly went wrong for the NDP will continue for quite some time, but there is general agreement they chose to be too cautious — at least in their messaging — in a campaign where Canadians were looking for something completely different.

“The campaign narrative very much became about change. Our offer might have been too subtle or nuanced, maybe, and people were looking for a harder contrast in policy,” said re-elected B.C. NDP MP Nathan Cullen.

And while the NDP opposition to the niqab ban likely sealed the magnitude of their electoral fate, many believe committing to a balanced budget — and then making it such as central part of their story even as people were responding positively to Justin Trudeau promising a deficit — was a major tactical error from which they never recovered.

“We have to make sure that we don’t allow folks to define progressive politics,” said NDP MP Peter Julian, re-elected in his B.C. riding, when asked about the role of the surplus versus deficit narrative.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Judy Rebick, who was involved with a left-wing movement in the NDP in the 1980s, said she sees a role for Mulcair in the House of Commons pushing the Liberals to go further on the issues he was particularly bold on, such as climate change, violence against women and restoring the relationship between Canada and its First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples, while the party focuses on rebuilding itself.

“He’s passionate about all those things, so rather than have a leadership fight, which is usually just about personality, I’d rather see that and then have a big policy discussion that isn’t a leadership fight where the NDP can talk about who it is and who it wants to be,” said Rebick.

With files from Rob Ferguson

Read more about: