Ottawa

Thomas Mulcair’s sidekick?

Joan Bryden reports on speculation of a Mulcair-Singh partnership.

Privately, all five rival camps have little doubt that Singh is “doing Tom’s dirty work,” as one senior New Democrat put it, allowing Mulcair himself to remain resolutely above the fray. “Basically, he’s doing Tom’s bidding for him,” asserts a top strategist for one rival camp. “Tom has told him, ‘I’m the positive guy, I need you to be my attack dog.'”

Rival camps noticed early on that Mulcair and Singh seemed to hang out together during all-candidates’ events. Two camps say they’ve actually heard from some New Democrats who’ve reported that Singh openly told them he intended to back the Montreal MP. “It’s been known on the inside for months that they’re in cahoots,” agrees an insider with a third camp.

Update 5:07pm. Mr. Mulcair’s campaign director steps forward to deny the suggestion.

“The idea that we are somehow co-ordinating debate performances or using Mr. Singh as an ‘attack dog’ is entirely fabricated and, if I may say so, somewhat condescending to Mr. Singh,” says Raoul Gebert.

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