After being introduced to Quebeckers first with a television ad, Thomas Mulcair, the new NDP leader, is getting an English-language marketing debut. This marks the first time the party has spent media dollars to introduce Jack Layton’s successor to the majority of Canadians.
The Canadian Press has the following on the new ad:
It features a cameo by Layton’s widow, NDP MP Olivia Chow, who assures viewers that “Jack’s vision is in good hands.”During the seven-month leadership contest to choose Layton’s successor, Mulcair was portrayed by his rivals as someone who would lurch the social democratic party to the centre of the political spectrum, turning it into a pale imitation of the Liberal party.
Mulcair contributed to the sense that he would dramatically change the NDP, promising to broaden the party’s base and complaining about the out-of-date “boilerplate” language the party frequently uses to describe its traditional target voters: “ordinary” Canadians.
