OTTAWA - The minute after NDP Leader Jack Layton pronounced his opposition to the budget, all attention turned to his fragile health.
With Layton his party's best asset in an election campaign, his fight against prostate cancer and his ongoing recovery from hip surgery are constantly on the minds of supporters and opponents alike.
Layton and his staff insist, unfailingly, that he is as energetic as ever and perfectly prepared to launch a vigorous high-stakes election campaign.
"Better by the day," Layton grinned when asked Tuesday how he's feeling.
But before he commented on the budget, his staff set up a podium for him in the foyer of the House of Commons. They stuck close to the leader as he walked with a cane. And Layton cut his comments short, accepting just a handful of questions -- uncharacteristic for a leader who has never shunned the cameras.
Campaign manager Brad Lavigne says the podium was to hold up Layton's notes, not the leader himself. And the cane is a sign of progress, because the doctors still expected him to be on crutches after his surgery earlier this month.
"Every day that goes by, he gets more and more mobile."
The NDP's candidates have a lot riding on Layton's energy levels.
They've already rebranded the party as the "Jack Layton NDP." Lawn signs have been printed, and his face and logo appear on all of them.
Layton consistently scores higher than his party in public opinion polls, and has been able to define a high-profile image for himself despite being the fourth party in the Commons.
His campaign will not be as frenetic as previous campaigns, but again, organizers say that's a strategy decision, not a health decision.
A typical day will include an announcement in the morning, a colourful event in the afternoon and an occasional evening interview or town hall meeting, Lavigne says.
Already, the party's Ottawa war room is almost fully staffed, with about 125 out of 150 party workers in town and ready to go. The stump speeches have been written, the advance crew is out scouting venues for the first few days' events, and the entire 36-day campaign has been mapped out.
"We're far, far ahead of where we were in 2008," Lavigne said.
Still, there are still 20 ridings with no candidate nominated yet, he added.
And there was an uncomfortable sign that not everyone in the NDP's traditional support base is comfortable with the rush to an election. The Canadian Labour Congress urged calmer heads to prevail, saying that budget measures to increase support for the poorest of seniors and extend employment insurance benefits for older workers were worthwhile.
Nevertheless, New Democrat MPs seemed peaceful with their decision to push the country closer to an election.
The weekly Monday meeting of MPs gave many of them the feeling that the Conservatives were not going to be generous enough in the budget to allow for NDP support.
As news leaked out about initiatives in the budget, it became clear to some in the caucus that the Tories weren't going to come close to meeting their demands.
One example was the ecoENERGY Retrofit-Homes program. The NDP was pushing the government to fund the program beyond simply one year. That seemed to be at play and then suddenly it wasn't.
"We had all decided in advance what our bottom line was going to be. We weren't going to make up our minds until we saw it. We made it clear from the beginning that if they're not willing to work with us, we're not going to be patsies and the people back home don't want us to be patsies," said NDP Ontario MP Charlie Angus.
"The decision was fairly straightforward when the budget came down."
Junior finance minister Ted Menzies asked to meet with the NDP's finance critic Thomas Mulcair on Tuesday afternoon before the budget became public, but it was clear that the Conservatives were in no mood for a compromise, Mulcair said.
"He was sent in to do something, it was a follow-up to all the leaks that occurred yesterday," Mulcair said. "I'm still not sure why he did it, it was a bit curious as an exercise."
