A furious beating of wings

Prepare for a pecking

MAKING a politician who is given to bursts of rage and colourful language seem cuddly and reassuring is a hard job. So too is transforming the image of a party that is branded by opponents as a bunch of tax-and-spend socialists who would bungle the nation’s economy.

Both makeovers will be needed if Thomas Mulcair is to capitalise on the chance he has to lead his New Democratic Party (NDP) to victory and become Canada’s first really left-wing prime minister. After overturning four decades of Progressive Conservative rule in the province of Alberta in May, the NDP is now tipped to come top in national elections in October.

But does the party, or its leader, have the gravitas to govern? The label of “Angry Tom”—fine for an opposition gadfly but not for the leader of a big, important country—has dogged Mr Mulcair at least since 2008. That was when, as a newish MP, he lost his cool with the Conservatives during a row over a Malaysian asylum-seeker. What happened is disputed, but he was called to order by the Speaker after some Tories said he made menacing gestures. He once called a...

from The Economist: The Americas http://ift.tt/1LKmVIW