EDMONTON -- The NDP has unveiled an election slogan aimed at reasserting its claim to be the real alternative to Stephen Harper's Conservative government: "Change that's ready."

The slogan is meant to contrast NDP Leader Tom Mulcair's experience and his party's policy depth with what New Democrats see as the empty promises of neophyte Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau.

It's plastered on the podium at an NDP caucus retreat in Edmonton, where Mulcair is trying to rally his troops for a year of non-stop campaigning ahead of the next scheduled election in October 2015.

Mulcair says Canadians are for the first time looking at the NDP as a government in waiting.

Since vaulting past the Liberals to become the official Opposition in 2011, he says the NDP caucus team has proven it has the leadership and experience to take on Harper and to form government.

However, since Trudeau took the helm of the Liberals 18 months ago, the NDP has sunk back in public opinion polls to its more traditional third-place slot.