MONTREAL - Thomas Mulcair has made it official: he is throwing his hat in the ring to become leader of the New Democratic Party.

Mulcair made the announcement Thursday morning in his Outremont riding, and launched a website to promote himself. 

"I think that one of the things I bring to the game is a lot of political and administrative experience," said Mulcair, pointing out that before he was elected three times as a Liberal MNA in Quebec and three times as an NDP MP, he was was chairman of the Office des Professions.

Supported by fellow MP Lorne Nystrom from Saskatchewan and New Brunswick NDP Leader Dominic Cardy, Mulcair said the next leader of the NDP has to be ready to tackle Prime Minister Stephen Harper. 

"Canadians will be watching the New Democratic Party in the coming months," said Mulcair. "If nothing changes, we won't form the government."

The representative from Outremont was first elected to the House of Commons in 2007, as the first NDP member from Quebec in 17 years, and quickly became the party's Quebec lieutenant and one of two deputy leaders.

Fellow Quebec MP Romeo Saganash is also challenging to lead the party, as are MPs Nathan Cullen and Paul Dewar.

Martin Singh, a long-time party member who has never run for public office, is also running to be leader.

The front-runner is the never-elected Brian Topp, who has served as the political party's president for many years and worked behind the scenes as part of the late Jack Layton's inner circle.

Topp has already received endorsements from former NDP leader Ed Broadbent and the other deputy leader Libby Davies, as well as from several unions.


Facing an uphill battle

Mulcair has complained in the past that the NDP's internal constitution puts Quebec at a disadvantage.

"There are deep structural challenges that are part of the backdrop to this campaign."

Those challenges, at least for Mulcair, come from the relative lack of members from Quebec compared to other provinces, since it does not have a provincial wing.

Despite having more MPs in Quebec than in any other province, there are only 2,000 card-carrying party members in Quebec, and when it comes to a leadership race, every individual vote counts.

Mulcair was successful in convincing the party to delay its leadership convention until March in a bid to boost party membership in Quebec.