Saganash pulls out of NDP leadership race

Romeo Saganash with the late NDP leader Jack Layton at a campaign event held prior to the May 2 federal election. Saganash announced Sept. 12 that he will seek the job that Layton held until his Aug. 22 death by cancer. He’s expected to drop out of the race Feb. 10. (FILE PHOTO)

(Updated at 2:00 p.m.)

Nunavik MP Romeo Saganash has officially withdrawn from the race to lead the federal New Democratic Party, citing illness and a lack of funds.

Saganash made the announcement in Val d’Or the morning of Feb. 10, speaking to local media with a hoarse voice from the second bout of bronchitis the Cree leader has suffered since he launched his leadership bid last September.

“After thousands of kilometres of travel and two bouts of bronchitis, my campaign for the leadership of the NDP has come to an end,” Saganash said Feb. 10.

“I received a lot of support, but the money didn’t follow. Maintaining a credible campaign takes funding and that’s the main reason behind my decision to pull out of this race.”

Saganash said he was “sad” to leave the leadership behind, but looking forward to seeing more of his family — in particular, his mother, who lives in the Cree community of Waswanipi.

The MP for Abitibi-Baie James-Nunavik-Eeyou’s departure from the contest leaves seven competitors vying to take over the party’s reins: party strategist Brian Topp, MPs Thomas Mulcair, Paul Dewar, Niki Ashton, Nathan Cullen and Peggy Nash and Nova Scotia businessman Martin Singh. Saganash has not thrown his support behind any of his former competitors as of yet.

New Democrats will convene to select a new leader on March 24 in Toronto.

Saganash was the second candidate to declare his candidacy, and now becomes the second to bow out of the race. Nova Scotia MP Robert Chisholm backed out of the race in December, citing his inability to speak French.

Saganash was elected to the House of Commons for the first time in the May 2011 federal election and sits as the official opposition’s natural resources critic.

He is a law school graduate and former deputy grand chief of the Grand Council of the Crees. Saganash has spent the last 30 years brokering deals with industry, utility companies, the Quebec and federal governments and was a key player on the international stage in drafting the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

While Saganash was the first indigenous person to seek the leadership of a major political party, throughout the campaign he distanced himself from the suggestion that his heritage had an impact on his leadership aspirations.

“Is being an aboriginal in this race a handicap? Some view that,” he said in a December interview. “I myself believe I’m a leader, period. And my track record shows that. Much of what I did in the past has benefited everybody. Aboriginal and non-aboriginal.”

Saganash spent his first 6 and a half years “in the bush” living the traditional way of life — hunting, fishing and trapping with his parents — before he was whisked away to residential school for a decade.

His father died the first year he arrived and when his schoolmaster informed him of his passing, he also told him he couldn’t go home to mourn, as the money wasn’t in the budget.

With files from Postmedia