Mccurdy steps down and Rogers steps up
Earle Mccurdy announced Tuesday he is stepping down as leader of the NDP, and St. John’s Centre MHA Gerry Rogers is already the early favourite to replace him.
Moments after Mccurdy concluded his news conference announcing he is ready to leave politics, Rogers told reporters she will run for the NDP leadership.
“We all need to work together, and I believe that’s my strength — working together and collaboration,” Rogers said.
“We have to find ways of pulling together and moving forward, and we’re starting to see some of that. We’re starting to see the awakening of activism.”
Rogers said that in the current municipal election, she’s feeling a groundswell of support from young people and progressive candidates, and she believes there’s an opportunity for the NDP to grow in the next provincial election.
The NDP’S only other member of the House of Assembly, former leader Lorraine Michael, said she has no intention of running for the leadership.
Rogers said voters are feeling frustrated about the disastrous Muskrat Falls megaproject, and in recent opinion polls, a large slice of the electorate says they’re undecided and don’t support any party.
“People know that we have been duped by the two past governments around Muskrat Falls,” Rogers said. “We never thought that the Upper Churchill will ever happen again, and this is even worse. People know that they were not at the centre of decisions that were made by the two previous governments, and they know that there has to be a better way forward, and I believe that’s the role that the NDP must play.”
Mccurdy was warmly thanked on Tuesday for his two years of service as leader of the NDP. He became leader in the spring of 2015, but failed to win a seat in the general election later that year.
The NDP has struggled and failed to rise above third-party status in the province since its inception.
Mccurdy said his decision to step aside is because he plans to move to Eastport, where his wife has a small business and his son is going to high school.
He said he wasn’t prepared to make a six-year commitment to political life — the two years until the next election, and then four years afterward if he won a seat in the legislature.
“There comes a time when you say it’s time to move on,” he said.
There is a looming byelection in Mount Pearl North, with the announced departure of MHA Steve Kent. Mccurdy lives in Mount Pearl North, and was widely expected to lose that byelection if he ran, but he said that factor had nothing to do with his decision to resign.
NDP president Mark Grouchy said the party executive will meet next week to pick an interim leader, and start deciding the timing and specific rules for a leadership contest to pick Mccurdy’s replacement.
“There comes a time when you say it’s time to move on.” NDP Leader Earle Mccurdy