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The NDP is portraying the Liberals as lazy and entitled as it tries to reclaim its position as the strongest competition to Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Emerging from a three-day caucus retreat in Edmonton, the NDP is attempting to seize the spotlight from Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau.

Fisheries and Oceans critic Robert Chisholm said the Liberals have failed to hold the Conservatives feet to the fire and are merely waiting to get elected.

When theyre in opposition, they dont work all that hard, said Chisholm, the NDP MP for Dartmouth-Cole Harbour.

They dont seem to raise too much of a fuss because they have this sense of confidence that, well, eventually people will want to fire these guys out and then well just take our turn.

The NDP needs to reverse the trends of the past two years to have a chance of winning the 2015 federal election.

The Liberals have led all parties in the polls since Trudeau was elected leader in 2012. In Nova Scotia, the Liberals swept an NDP majority government out of power. In British Columbia, an NDP party that looked like a shoo-in unexpectedly fell to the Liberal incumbents.

In Toronto, the Liberals seized the former NDP stronghold of Trinity-Spadina in a byelection when Olivia Chow vacated her seat to run for Toronto mayor. (Chow, after starting strong, now also lags behind in the polls.)

Most frustrating for the party is that it has fallen to third place in the polls, despite leader Tom Mulcairs widely praised performance as chief inquisitor in the House of Commons.

On Thursday, there was the unusual sight of Mulcair echoing Conservative attack points regarding Trudeaus relative inexperience.

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NDP planning to fight Liberals for opposition spotlight

The Cochrane Room at Government House was so packed with Liberals Thursday that they ran out of chairs.

Photo by James McLeod/The Telegram

Liberal MHA Scott Reid (right) is sworn in by Lt.-Gov Frank Fagan at Government House Thursday morning.

MHA Paul Lane offered to let a candidate sit on his knee, but workers brought in a few more chairs before it came to that.

The Liberal staffers and supporters, and Liberal politicians past, present and future, were all crowded into the little room to watch Scott Reid get sworn in as the MHA for St. Georges-Stephenville East.

Since the last general election, there have been four byelections, which has led to four swearing-in ceremonies for Liberal MHAs at Government House. The mood in the room was upbeat; the Liberals feel like they have the wind at their back these days, although theyre reticent to say so publicly.

Youd be silly to think that youre going to win every one, but you set out to do that. You just try to do the same thing and work as hard, and make it just as much of a priority as the last one, said Paul Antle, who ran for the party leadership last year, and plans to run for the Liberals in the 2015 general election.

This fall, there will likely be three more byelections then-finance minister Charlene Johnson resigned last week, Justice Minister Terry French announced that hes leaving next week and Premier Tom Marshall is expected to retire after the PCparty picks a new leader this weekend.

Familiar policies

Liberal Leader Dwight Ball said he has checked out bits and pieces of the Tory leadership race that has stretched out over the past summer. He said he watched the televised leadership debate on NTV over the weekend, but didnt follow it closely enough to be able to pick a winner.

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With Reid sworn in, Liberals feel the momentum

On Liberals Working Together for Change

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The Ontario NDPs Andrea Horwath is taking aim at the Liberals musings about selling off pieces of provincial Crown corporations, as the leader seeks to shore up support in her party ahead of a provincial council meeting and upcoming leadership review.

On Wednesday, Ms. Horwath said public agencies should remain completely owned by the government and their major assets, such as power stations and nuclear reactors, should not be sold to private companies.

We should keep OPG [Ontario Power Generation], Hydro One and the LCBO in public hands where they can benefit all of us, not just the well-connected, Ms. Horwath said at Queens Park. The fact is when Ontarians own something, we can make sure that it works for us, that it works in our best interests.

The governing Liberals have appointed Ed Clark, chief executive officer of the TD Bank, to lead a panel to look at the provinces assets and make suggestions on what can be sold. The government has not ruled anything out, including selling stakes in Crown corporations to pension funds, or offloading hydro infrastructure to the private sector.

The Liberals contend that they can find more money in the corporations to help fund highways and public transit.

Andrea Horwath is being irresponsible by saying the government should never review assets, and that it should never look at maximizing the benefit for the people of Ontario, Infrastructure Minister Brad Duguid said in a statement. Were not going to make that mistake.

The NDP argues that offering any stake to the private sector would diminish the dividends some of these Crown corporations pay annually into the public purse.

Ms. Horwath came under fire from within her party for running on a populist platform in the June election and avoiding the sort of ambitious, social justice-oriented policies the NDP has traditionally embraced. Dissent has been strongest in Toronto, where the party lost three seats to the Liberals, who campaigned on public transit and a provincial pension plan.

On Wednesday, Ms. Horwath said she understood that anger and would make a concerted effort to emphasize the kinds of issues that would appeal to Toronto voters, including income inequality, homelessness, public transit and health care. All of those things are core NDP values and what I need to do is make sure that Im connecting with folks in Toronto, and Im ensuring that those values are reflected, she said.

The NDP Leader faces her first test this weekend when the partys provincial council will debate rules that allow the partys leadership to fill unused delegate slots at its November convention a policy that some fear Ms. Horwaths loyalists could use to get more of their camp into the convention and the leadership vote.

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Ontario NDPs Horwath says Liberals shouldnt sell off major public assets

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4-minute version of the 16-minute video which has 5800+ views. Combines audio from Vicki McKenna show and photos from Sara Conrad. More info at Badger Pundit blog: http://thebadger14.wordpress.com...

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