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With polls showing his party well out in the lead, a confident Prime Minister Stephen Harper said a Conservative government "will hit the ground running" if given another mandate by Canadian voters.

Harper told a crowd at a campaign event in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., that "the business of government will commence Tuesday" if the Tories win next Monday's vote.

Harper also made another direct appeal to voters to give the Conservatives a majority mandate, repeating earlier claims that it's the only way to avoid another election in short order.

"I hope that after the election we'll have a strong, stable majority, we will not continue to have all of this parliamentary manoeuvring," Harper told an audience at a northern Ontario college.

He made similar comments at a lively rally in Windsor, Ont., once again warning of a hypothetical Liberal-New Democrat alliance supported by the Bloc Quebecois.

"It would only be a matter of months, I suspect, before we'd be having our fifth election," he warned.

The NDP have held both local Windsor ridings in the last three elections. The Conservatives have recently begun to sharpen their attacks on the NDP, as polls show Jack Layton's party to be challenging the Liberals for second place.

Harper described a rise in NDP support as "interesting" in a recent television interview, and he admitted that the Conservatives are "in battles with the NDP" in selected ridings.

The Conservative leader has continued to run a frontrunners campaign into the last week by staying on message, trying to avoid the last-minute gaffes that cost him in previous elections.

When describing what his government would be like with a majority in the House of Commons, Harper said he would be "proceeding very cautiously" on sensitive files such as foreign investment and Supreme Court of Canada appointments.

But Harper did not answer a question on whether the Conservatives would continue to run attack ads between elections.

"You know, politics is a sport of give and take. We're in a vigorous campaign," he said.

Target: Jack Layton

Harper and Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff both spent Monday targeting the surging Layton in New Democrat-held ridings.

But Layton told reporters Monday that he believes Canadians are increasingly inclined to back his party, after years of minority Liberal and Conservative governments in Ottawa.

"I think that Canadians are coming to a conclusion that maybe it's time for something new," Layton said during a campaign stop in Saint John, N.B.

His rivals may claim that NDP support could split the left-leaning vote, but Layton said it is an "absurd proposal" to suggest that Canadians can only vote Liberal or Conservative if they want their vote to count in Ottawa.

"This is the absurd proposal that somehow you don't really have a choice but to vote for one or other of the two old-line parties," Layton said.

Where the leaders went

Here's where the party leaders made stops on Monday:

• Prime Minister Stephen Harper visited NDP-held Ontario ridings in Sault Ste. Marie and Windsor
• Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff visited Thunder Bay, Ont., and Vancouver
• NDP Leader Jack Layton visited Saint John, N.B., Ottawa and Montreal
• Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe visited Saint-Lambert and Laval, both in Quebec
• Green Party Leader Elizabeth May campaigned in British Columbia, making appearances in Saanich, Gordon Head and Sidney

Liberals take aim at NDP

CTV's Roger Smith said Ignatieff and the Liberals have been losing support to the NDP and they are running out of time to win back the votes they need before the May 2 election.

"People who want to get rid of the Tory government seem to be moving towards the NDP, at least parking their votes there for now," Smith told Â鶹ӰÊÓ Channel on Monday morning.

"The Liberals still think they can track back some of those NDP supporters, but it's going to be tough."

The Liberals unveiled a new ad on Monday that shows the faces of Harper and Layton on the opposite sides of a loonie, describing the two men as "two career politicians" who are "two sides of the same coin."

"In 2005, their unprincipled deal stopped the Liberal plan for national child care, stronger gun control and better environmental protections," a female narrator says.

"Today, Harper will give your tax dollars to big banks and rich oil companies. And Layton? He'd jack up your taxes to pay for 70 billion in new spending."

Smith said the Liberal plan is "to question the validity of some of the NDP campaign promises and (to) link Jack Layton to Stephen Harper."

In a separate news release, the Liberals accused the NDP of using "fantasy money" to pay for its campaign promises, a plan the Grits say is "just not credible."

During a campaign event Monday in Thunder Bay, Ignatieff criticized the cost estimates in the NDP platform, saying the New Democrats' attempt to budget based on a cap-and-trade system "when the thing hasn't even been set up…just doesn't add up."

Calling the NDP's platform "science fiction," Ignatieff also criticized Harper's platform, saying the numbers in the budget his government unveiled shortly before Parliament fell and the figures in the party's election platform don't match.

"Our numbers add up, and with all due respect to the other guys their numbers don't," Ignatieff said. "And it's not just Mr. Layton's numbers that don't add up, Stephen Harper's numbers don't add up."

Recent polls suggest the NDP could be the most popular federalist choice for Quebec voters in the upcoming election, which could see Layton's party build on the single seat they currently hold in the province.

That has put the Bloc Quebecois on the defensive, prompting leader Gilles Duceppe to bring former Quebec premier Jacques Parizeau out for a day of campaigning Monday, in a bid to appeal to the party's core separatist supporters.

"Get out there in the last week and support the Bloc Quebecois with all your strength," the former Quebec premier said.

"Right now, we need the Bloc now maybe more than ever, because there are huge issues that we have to watch."

With files from The Canadian Press