[SteelTown]

Andrea Horwath makes quiet bid for NDP leadership

October 29, 2008
Andrew Dreschel
The Hamilton Spectator

Maybe it just got lost in the pseudo-excitement of the Canadian federal election.

Or maybe it got buried under the avalanche of American election coverage and nauseating glut of Sarah Palin trivia.

Whatever the reason, the fact Hamilton Centre MPP Andrea Horwath is running to replace outgoing Ontario NDP Leader Howard Hampton seems to have somehow fallen between the chairs.

Horwath is not only in the race, but she officially registered as a candidate back in mid-September.

She suspects some of the uncertainty about her place in the contest stems from the fact she hasn't formally launched her campaign yet.

With the party's first leadership debate scheduled for Nov. 8 -- four days after the distracting agony of the American election comes to an end -- time is now running out on her.

"I'll be making an announcement before those debates occur on Nov. 8," Horwath said yesterday.

She says she delayed formally plunging into the race in order to give herself more time to assemble a campaign team, an effort that was sidelined by the federal election.

"I'm not going to be building a team while all the team members are working on a federal campaign and doing other work," she said.

"We didn't want to draw resources away from that very important priority at the time."

But with the federal election now history, Horwath says she redoubled her efforts to put together a lineup of helpers which, she says, will be reflected in her upcoming announcement.

The leadership convention will be held in Hamilton on March 7-8.

That's when Hampton, who has been leader since 1996, will officially step down.

Horwath is facing three other rivals for the job, all of them members of the 10-member NDP caucus.

The latest addition arrived this week in the form of MPP Peter Tabuns (Toronto-Danforth).

Tabuns, a former executive director of Greenpeace Canada and a former Toronto councillor and deputy mayor, was first elected in a 2006 byelection.

MPP Gilles Bisson (Timmins-James Bay) and Michael Prue (Beaches-East York) are the other two contenders.

Bisson, the party's whip, has been an MPP for almost two decades.

Prue, a former East York mayor and councillor, was first elected in a 2001 byelection.

Horwath herself was first elected to the legislature in the 2004 byelection held to replace the late Dominic Agostino.

Her win was a huge victory because it restored official party status to the New Democrats, and the funding that goes with it, which they lost in the 2003 election when they fell below eight seats.

Respected for her political smarts and steam power, Horwath came to the job after representing Ward 2 on city council from 1997 to mid-2004.

If elected, she would be the first woman to lead the Ontario NDP, which was formed in 1961 as a successor to the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation.

Though "heartened" by the positive response to her candidacy, Horwath says she's keenly aware that it's a "huge undertaking with significant ramifications" for both her personal and professional life.

That's a recurring theme for her, one she first floated back in June when she was only considering throwing her hat in the ring.

"I really want to make sure that I have everything I need to win," she said back then. "I'm not jumping into this as a whim."

Presumably, months later, her mindset and everything else she needs to have a good shot at winning are now firmly in place.