Canadians should not fear the NDP position that a vote of 50 per cent plus one is enough to decide a future referendum, party leader Thomas Mulcair said Monday in Toronto.

“The NDP wants to make sure we don’t ever go down that path again,” Mulcair told reporters Monday when asked about his position on national unity at his first stop on an eight-day pre-election tour through Ontario to promote his platform and candidates.

“That is why opening up the door, making sure that Quebecers see their future is in Canada — the best future for them and their kids is in Canada — and making sure that all Canadians from across the country say this is the Canada that we want: a respected place for Quebec in Canada and a respected place for Canada in Quebec,” Mulcair said.

The NDP position on what happens following a referendum on Quebec sovereignty is detailed in the Sherbrooke Declaration, a policy paper the Quebec wing of the party adopted in 2005.

The policy says the NDP would recognize a “majority decision” — specified as 50 per cent plus one — as enough to trigger talks “in the spirit” of the 1998 Supreme Court reference on secession.

It makes no mention of the 2000 Clarity Act, which gives the House of Commons the right to decide, after the fact, whether both the referendum question and the majority were clear and then requires Quebec to negotiate secession terms with the rest of the provinces.

During the 2011 election campaign and in the months that followed, NDP insiders insisted quietly the Clarity Act was there in spirit, if not in name, but then two years ago, Toronto NDP MP Craig Scott (Toronto—Danforth) introduced controversial private member’s bill that would have repealed the law.

His proposed Unity Act would have allowed the Quebec court of appeal decide whether the question was clear, while removing the requirement to negotiate with provinces and a Yes vote result any higher than 50 per cent plus one.

Mulcair argued that his position has the advantage of providing an actual number.

“If you want to take part in this discussion, you actually have to have a position: we have one. Our position is the exact same as the one taken by the mother of all parliaments in the recent Scottish referendum,” Mulcair said.

“We’ve been able to show Canadians why what was done in the ‘80 and ‘95 referendums and what was done in Scotland is the way to go,” said Mulcair, who was speaking about the 50-per-cent-plus-one majority, not the phrasing of the question.

“People have to understand that yes means yes ... Yes can’t mean no but perhaps we want a better deal. People have to be clear about that,” he said.

Mulcair also boasted of his federalist bona fides, having helped the No campaign when he was a provincial public servant, and then MNA, in Quebec City.

“I am the only leader in this campaign who can boast to have fought tooth and nail to keep Quebec in Canada,” Mulcair said.

“I did that in both the 1980 and 1995 referendum and I take a back seat to no one when it comes to defending this extraordinary country of ours,” Mulcair said.

The position has been party policy for a decade and was a big part of successful NDP efforts to lure soft nationalist voters away from the Bloc Québécois during the 2011 election campaign, but it is coming under greater scrutiny in recent weeks as polls place the party within reach of winning the Oct. 19 federal election.

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Some of that criticism has come from the Liberals, including party leader Justin Trudeau, who told The Canadian Press that Mulcair was engaging in “just the worst kind of politics.”

Mulcair, meanwhile, said the Liberals are the ones playing politics.

“I will let the Liberals try to restart the quarrels of the past because they think that is going to help them. We are going to take an optimistic, positive approach to what we can accomplish together. Quebecers are reacting very well to that right now,” Mulcair said.

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