OTTAWA — The NDP joined the swelling ranks Monday of federal parties insisting they want Parliament to work while making a show of their preparation for its dissolution.
From the “outreach and persuasion” call centre at the newly renovated, eco-friendly NDP war room to campaign training sessions and photo-ops for new Liberal candidates, the opposition parties wanted everyone to know they are gearing up quickly for an election all parties insist they aren’t interested in triggering.
The show of political pugnaciousness earned a scolding from House Leader John Baird one week after his Conservative party sent out an expensive volley of campaign ads aimed destroying the credibility of his opposition rivals.
“Instead of focusing on the economy, the Liberals and the New Democratic Party are today focused on forcing an unnecessary and opportunist election,” Baird said.
His finger-wagging came a day after Prime Minister Stephen Harper delivered a patriotic speech to 600 supporters touting his record on crime and the economy.
Just in case anyone thought the prime minister might just be boasting, a sign in the hall told those in the audience the entire event was being filmed by an expensive, sophisticated campaign camera attached to a crane which swooped around the room zooming in on Harper and flag-waving members of the audience.
Despite its own muscle-flexing, the NDP denies it is spoiling for a fight.
“We’re ready for an election, but we’d rather get things done,” said national director Brad Lavigne, taking questions from reporters after giving a quick tour of the party headquarters that will serve as home base for the next election campaign.
The war room, he said, is wired to be ultra-efficient — both from an environmental point of view and a logistical point of view. A wall of screens monitors television and twitter coverage from across the country. Media analysts scan reports in English, French and even Punjabi.
A board room has been designed for electronic town-hall meetings and teleconferencing. And they’ve adopted data-collection software from the Democrats in the United States, used in the primaries to elect Barack Obama.
“We’re signalling to the Conservatives that listen, we’ve got some credible and consistent things that we’ve putting on the table —pension security, help for seniors who need it, removing the federal sales tax from home heating. Those are the things that we’d like to see,” Lavigne said.
“But if Mr. Harper doesn’t want to make Parliament work, then we are prepared, if need be, to go to the people.”
The Conservatives have hinted that they are open to working with the NDP in the upcoming spring budget. But at the same time, they are doing some muscle flexing of their own.
Harper has said he wanted to take on the other parties over party financing — an issue that nearly brought his government down in 2008 when he attempted to use a fiscal update to cancel per-vote party subsidies.
The NDP, which wants to keep the subsidy, is prepared to enter into that debate — as long as it includes a fuller discussion about how parties pay for their campaigning, Lavigne said.
“We’d like to talk about how the Senate and the other campaign directors from the other parties — Senator Finley — are taxpayer-sponsored full-time fundraisers, full-time campaign directors,” Lavigne said, referring to Conservative operative Doug Finley.
“That’s an unfair subsidy. I’d like to take that to the people and see how they feel about that.”
The Liberals also have a top organizer in the Senate: campaign co-chair David Smith.
While no one knows for sure if there will be a spring election, the Liberals were also up to their elbows in campaign spit and polish on Monday.
The party’s winter caucus retreat kicked off with a training session for new candidates, who posed for photos with leader Michael Ignatieff for their campaign literature.
The caucus and candidates will hear from party pollster Michael Marzolini and chief-of-staff Peter Donolo on Tuesday on the lay of the pre-electoral land.
Ignatieff will attempt to rally his troops with a public speech before inviting Liberals to a networking party. There is the promise of some “surprise guests.”
The NDP is also holding its caucus retreat this week. Leader Jack Layton will cap off a cross-country tour on Tuesday after presenting his latest new recruit for the next election: Robert Chisholm, who once led the Nova Scotia NDP. Chisholm will run in Dartmouth-Cole Harbour in the next federal race.
Layton is slated to put forward some new ideas on Senate reform on Wednesday and deliver a chest-thumping speech to his team on Friday.