The next federal NDP leader won’t come from the Skeena riding.
Skeena-Bulkley Valley MP Nathan Cullen announced his decision to not run for the federal party’s leadership early Friday morning.
Cullen, who was widely expected to be a favourite should he decide to run for the nomination, finished third after running against most recent NDP leader Tom Mulcair in 2012.
The MP cited his family, the timing and where the party is at in its search for identity as reasons for his decision.
“I’ve always been kind of leaning away from this thing, timing being a big part of it,” said Cullen during a recent conference call.
“[I’m considering] where my kids are at right now, having to wrestle representing Skeena, as well as rebuilding the party and just trying to figure out what the party needs most right now and I think that is a rebuild process right from the ground up. So that just takes a huge commitment, and that’s what [had given me] pause rather than just jumping in right away.”
NDP party members rejected Mulcair as leader at a party convention last month and a new one will be named in 2017.
Cullen did not rule out a future run for the party’s leadership.
The MP is now working in Ottawa on a ‘Skeena Model’ approach to electoral reform, which has recently been supported by the governing Liberal party to create a committee as an approach to collaborative voting reform.
