Niki Ashton to Announce Leadership Bid

The MP from Churchill, Manitoba, would be the youngest candidate in the race at just 29 years old.

Niki Ashton is set to become the ninth person to enter the NDP leadership race, as the first-term Manitoba MP will be in Montreal to make an announcement this morning. Ashton, at 29 years old, would be the youngest person in the race, and also the first candidate from the great province of Manitoba. With nearly a tenth of the party's caucus now in the leadership race, predicting what could happen over the next few months ahead of the March 24 vote will be next to impossible, as should trying to keep track of all of the candidates' names. So, for your appreciation, currently running are:

• Brian Topp, a former union director and party president for the NDP;

• Thomas Mulcair, a former Liberal cabinet minister in Quebec and that province's lone NDP MP before this year;

• Paul Dewar, the NDP's foreign affairs critic;

• Nathan Cullen, an MP from B.C. who's been in office since 2003, longer than any other MP in the race;

• Peggy Nash, a party veteran from Toronto and the NDP's finance critic;

• Martin Singh, a pharmacist from Nova Scotia with a small-business focus;

• Romeo Saganash, a former Cree leader fro Quebec and the first aboriginal person to have run for the leadership of a major federal political party;

• Robert Chisholm, the former leader of the Nova Scotia NDP and the party's international trade critic.

Got that?