 In the wake of the October 2015 federal election, in which the federal NDP fell from second to third place, DiNovo was critical of Tom Mulcair's leadership of the federal NDP and of what she viewed as the party's centrist course under his leadership.DiNovo openly supported a leadership review of Mulcair's stewardship of the federal party at the party's April 2016 convention and called for the NDP to reaffirm its socialist principles.After Mulcair was defeated in the leadership review, DiNovo announced she would run as an "unofficial candidate" in the 2017 federal NDP leadership election on June 7, 2016 rather than pay the required fee of $30,000.