Mulcair names NDP shadow cabinet
NDP leader names 3 deputy leaders, gives leadership rivals prominent posts
CBC News
Posted: Apr 19, 2012 12:43 PM ET
Last Updated: Apr 20, 2012 4:23 PM ET
New NDP Leader Tom Mulcair appointed his shadow cabinet to Stephen Harper's Conservative government on Thursday, naming three deputy leaders and assigning a number of former leadership rivals to prominent posts.
Nova Scotia MP Megan Leslie and Ontario MP Dave Christopherson will join Libby Davies as deputy leaders.
Davies, a veteran caucus member from Vancouver, served as one of Jack Layton's deputy leaders alongside Mulcair.
Mulcair announced after winning the leadership in March that Davies would continue to serve as his deputy leader.
Davies had supported Brian Topp during the NDP leadership race.
Christopherson, on the other hand, was a strong supporter of Mulcair throughout the race. Leslie had remained neutral in the run-up to the leadership convention.
BC MP Nathan Cullen, one of Mulcair's rivals for the leadership of the NDP, was appointed as Opposition House leader, and will be assisted by new deputy House leader Sadia Groguhé, the MP for Saint-Lambert in Quebec.
Nash, Dewar, return to former portfolios
Fellow leadership rivals Paul Dewar, Peggy Nash and Niki Ashton also returned to their former posts as critics of foreign affairs, finance and women's issues, respectively. Romeo Saganash will move to international development and Robert Chisholm moves to fisheries, in addition to helping on intergovernmental affairs.
Former interim leader Nycole Turmel was also named chief Opposition whip.
"I am proud of the quality of the team we have," said Mulcair in a statement. "I am particularly proud of the sense of unity and purpose New Democrat MPs have shown as we went through this process."
Some shuffling of critics' responsibilities was necessary during the leadership race as senior MPs ran leadership campaigns, spending long periods travelling and absent from House of Commons debates and question period. The party's rules dictated that leadership candidates had to step down from their critic roles.
Saganash, for example, was the natural resources critic, but gave up that post to run for the leadership and was replaced by Claude Gravelle in the interim. Peter Julian now takes over as the critic for energy and natural resources.
Here's a complete breakdown of the NDP's House officers and shadow cabinet:
With files from the CBC's Rosemary BartonShare Tools
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