Thomas Mulcair is a lawyer and political commentator born on October 24, 1954. First elected as a Federal Member of Parliament for the New Democratic Party in a 2007 by-election (Outremont), he became, the very next year, the first New Democrat ever to be elected in a general election in his province of Quebec. Appointed as the Quebec lieutenant of his party, he was one of the architects of the “Orange Wave” which saw the New Democrats take three quarters of the seats in his home province and become, for the first time in the party’s history, the Official Opposition in the Canadian House of Commons. In 2012, he became the leader of the party.
 
With a government career spanning forty years, Mulcair came to Federal politics after serving three mandates as a provincial member of the Quebec National Assembly (Chomedey, Laval) (1994-2007). From 2003 to 2006, he served as Environment Minister in the Liberal government of Premier Jean Charest and was responsible for implementing Sustainable Development legislation, described as the most avant-garde in North America and still considered cutting-edge to this day.
 
Having devoted his career to public service, Mulcair was also president of the Office des professions du Québec (1987-1993), the body governing Quebec’s professional orders. He was the first Canadian elected to Board of Directors of CLEAR, the American Council on Licensure, Enforcement and Regulation. Pursuant to the adoption of NAFTA, he lectured widely on its effects on the regulation of professions, including for the American Bar Association and the American Medical Association. 
 
As a lawyer he has worked in the Legislative Affairs branch of the Quebec Justice department and at the Conseil de la langue française and in private law practice for ten years. He was in charge of the revision of the French version of the laws of Manitoba pursuant to the Supreme Court decision. He was Elected régional Secretary of the SPGQ, the Union of Quebec Government professionals, notably during the strike of 1982-1983. 
 
Visiting Professor in the political science Department at l’Université de Montréal from 2018 to 2022 where he taught a Master’s level course in Environment and Sustainable Development, he has also taught at UQTR, Concordia and StLawrence College.
 
He is a Fellow at the Centre for International Studies (CÉRIUM) and Senior Fellow of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights
 
He is chairman of the board of Jour de la Terre (Earth Day Canada).
 
Second in a family of ten children, Mulcair is married to Catherine P. Mulcair. They have two sons and four grand-children.