MONTREAL - One of the NDP's star Quebec candidates in the last election says he is not ruling out a run at the party's leadership.

Romeo Saganash, a former Cree leader who was elected in northern Quebec, will make his decision after the party finalizes the leadership rules next week.

Saganash says in the meantime he wants to focus on setting up additional constituency offices in his riding, which covers more than half of the province.

He joins an already long list of NDP notables who are thinking about whether to enter the contest to replace Jack Layton.

Speaking in Montreal today, Saganash also blasted Prime Minister Stephen Harper's new choice for director of communications, Angelo Persichilli.

Persichilli is coming under fire in Quebec for a column he wrote in which he speaks of the province's "annoying lament" about its treatment by the rest of Canada.