Ontario MP enters the fold

And then there were two. Ontario MP Charlie Angus officially entered the NDP leadership race Sunday – a competition that’s expected to start heating up soon with a debate scheduled for next month in Ottawa.

In an interview with The Canadian Press, Angus said the New Democrat race will be about renewing the NDP – a party that is struggling to rebuild after being reduced to third-party status in a devastating election loss in 2015.

“If there is one thing I am going to commit to during this process, it’s to try and build that relationship of getting out, of meeting people, of getting people to re-engage,” he said.

Angus, a northern Ontario MP first elected in 2004, said his politics have always been rooted at the community level, and that he tries to speak truth to power in a clear way.

“That’s how you excite people that’s how you sign up members,” he said. “That’s how you get people to donate.”

With its coffers drained, one of the party’s biggest challenges will be to restore its fundraising capacity ahead of the next vote in 2019. It will also need to win back the support of progressives who voted Liberal in the last election.

Angus said Prime Minister