Photo: http://lindamcquaig.ca/

Journalist and author Linda McQuaig is the latest candidate to announce for the NDP nomination race in the riding of Toronto Centre. In this public statement, she explains her decision as a “move from advocacy to action.” You can read McQuaig’s past columns published on rabble.ca here

After a long career as an author and journalist, I’m excited to announce that I am seeking the federal NDP nomination in Toronto Centre.

I’ve dedicated my professional life to writing and speaking publicly about issues that I care about deeply — countering income inequality and the austerity agenda, protecting and enhancing our public programs, tackling climate change and other environmental threats, and returning Canada to a constructive role in the world.

I now want to move from advocacy to action. After years as an observer and critic, I want to join a team actively fighting to build a Canada that is equal, inclusive and responsible — a Canada that is seriously under threat by Stephen Harper’s Conservative government.

This is a very exciting moment in Canadian politics. With the Harper government floundering as never before in the wake of recent scandals, the focus is turning toward who will form the next government. The upcoming by-election in Toronto Centre will be an important bell-weather as Canadians begin to seriously contemplate who can best lead the country in the post-Harper age. Liberal leader Justin Trudeau has glitz, but NDP leader Tom Mulcair has substance, brains and a strong commitment to a creating a more progressive and inclusive Canada.

For the past 13 years, I have lived and raised my daughter in Toronto Centre. I was born in the riding, at Toronto General Hospital, and attended high school here. I studied at the University of Toronto, where I got my start as a writer and editor at the student newspaper The Varsity. Most of my adult life, I’ve had the pleasure of living in various parts of downtown Toronto and enjoying the rich diversity that the city offers. I have downtown Toronto in my blood.

As a journalist, I’ve been an investigative and national reporter for The Globe and Mail, a columnist for the Toronto Star and the National Post, a senior writer for Maclean’s Magazine and an associate producer for CBC Radio. I’ve written nine books on politics and economics. My most recent book, co-authored with Osgoode Hall law professor Neil Brooks, is The Trouble with Billionaires: How the Super-Rich Hijacked the World and How We Can Take It Back.

Photo: http://lindamcquaig.ca/

Linda McQuaig

Journalist and best-selling author Linda McQuaig has developed a reputation for challenging the establishment. As a reporter for The Globe and Mail, she won a National Newspaper Award in 1989...