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He did indeed sing the praises of Margaret Thatcher

“The best way for a government to create wealth is to leave the free market alone and get off the back of businessmen and businesswomen,” Mulcair, as a provincial Liberal, told the Quebec National Assembly in 2001. The same speech saw Mulcair praising the former Conservative prime minister for saving “England” from a government that had “gotten its nose into everything.” Mulcair’s tune had shifted dramatically by 2013, when he mourned the British leader’s death with a line seemingly ripped from an encyclopedia, “one of the most influential British politicians and world leaders of the 20th century.”

Colleagues in the Quebec National Assembly remember him as “right wing”

In an August 19 tweet, Liberal MP Scott Brison wrote “former Quebec cabinet colleagues of Mulcair have told me that he was the most right wing member of the Quebec Liberal caucus.” Granted, “right wing” means something very different in Quebec — and Brison obviously has a good partisan reason to make Mulcair look flip-floppy.

@gmbutts Former Quebec cabinet colleagues of Mulcair have told me that he was the most right wing member of the Quebec Liberal caucus —

Scott Brison (@scottbrison) August 19, 2015

Likes Israel

Although it’s hard for any party to match the Conservatives’ singular devotion to the government of Benjamin Netanyahu, Mulcair is an unusually pro-Israel NDPer. He once said he supports the Jewish state “in all situations, in all circumstances,” and has reportedly turned away NDP candidates for having outspoken anti-Israel views. Compare that to Vancouver MP Libby Davies, who once shared the NDP deputy leader title with Mulcair. At a Vancouver rally Davies was once quoted as saying that Israel’s “occupation” began with the country’s inception in 1948. “I mean, this is the longest occupation in the world.”