 Mulcair first entered the National Assembly in the 1994 election, winning the riding of Chomedey as a member of the Quebec Liberal Party.Mulcair claims he ran as a Liberal because at the time, it was the only credible federalist provincial party in Quebec.In that era, Quebec was the only province where the NDP was not fully organized; its Quebec wing had seceded in 1990 to preach sovereigntism.