MONTREAL - After purposely casting Jack Layton as the NDP's shining star, the party now poised to seize more power in Ottawa faces a problem: its potential front bench is a mystery to many voters.
Layton has kept the election spotlight to himself, mainly because he is considered his party's best asset.
But his A-team is relatively unknown to many of the people considering casting their ballots for the NDP for the first time.
"Me, I only know Jack Layton," said Linda Racine, a Quebec City resident spending a sunny weekend in Montreal.
"If I went to vote, I'd vote for him. He's got an honest face. But I'm not voting."
Layton's face is everywhere in this city where, tellingly, the leader kicked off his final day of campaigning Sunday. But other NDP faces are unrecognizable, said Mario Bouchard, walking with Racine in the downtown core.
"He doesn't have a team that I know of," Bouchard said. "I'm spoiling my ballot. I don't have any confidence in any of them."
Among NDP incumbents standing for re-election, many are political veterans.
Montreal's Thomas Mulcair, the party's finance critic and deputy leader in the last Parliament, was a provincial environment minister under Premier Jean Charest before he quit in a huff in 2006.
In the early 1990s, Hamilton's David Christopherson was solicitor general in Ontario under then-premier Bob Rae. He served alongside Tony Martin, now standing for federal re-election in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., and incumbent Irene Mathysson, from London, Ont.
Jack Layton was deputy mayor of Toronto, which has a budget bigger than some provinces. His wife, Olivia Chow, is a seasoned politician and formidable strategist in her own right.
Longtime MPs such as Yvon Godin, Jack Harris, justice critic Joe Comartin and House leader Libby Davies are known for their grasp of policy.
And relative newcomers such as Megan Leslie, from Halifax, and Paul Dewar, from Ottawa, have proven their ability to conquer intricate files quickly and handle them deftly, party officials argue.
"They're among the hardest-working MPs in the House, because we've been the fourth party," said one insider. Every MP has had to sit on several committees, and many of them have authored and piloted a private member's bill or two.
In the back room, campaign chairman Brad Lavigne spent a few years inside at the most senior levels the B.C. government. The mastermind behind the party's policy platform, Brian Topp, was a deputy chief of staff for Roy Romanow's NDP government in Saskatchewan.
And the senior officials in the party frequently consult with the likes of Romanow, former leader Ed Broadbent, Nova Scotia Premier Darrell Dexter and top people linked to the NDP government in Manitoba.
The NDP has come under attack for fielding so-called "phantom candidates" in Quebec and Ontario.
Ruth Ellen Brosseau, who's running in the rural francophone riding of Berthier-Maskinonge despite very limited French, was slammed for taking a vacation in Las Vegas during the campaign.
Jim Koppens, the Ontario NDP candidate for Ajax-Pickering, left on a trip to the Caribbean with his family earlier this month.
Still, the roster of potential newbies also includes a few New Democrats with valuable experience in the big leagues. Former provincial leader Robert Chisholm is running in the Halifax area, while Nycole Turmel, running in west Quebec, is one of the first women in Canada to lead a major union -- the Public Service Alliance of Canada.
Two prominent aboriginal leaders ¡-- Romeo Saganash in northern Quebec and Louis Cardinal in Edmonton -- are also running for NDP seats, although the Edmonton seat is a long shot.
As for the party's platform, even some New Democrats have admitted it was not designed with an eye towards forming government.
Layton has already said projected revenue from selling cap-and-trade permits may not materialize as expected, forcing some high-cost promises to be delayed.
The party's proposed changes to Employment Insurance, meanwhile, are an "aspiration" and not a scheduled, detailed commitment, said a senior party official.
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business has calculated that the improvements to benefits and the easing of requirements would cost billions, and result in a quick ramp-up of premiums for employees and employers alike.
But NDP officials say they wouldn't make the changes until the funding exists within the EI fund -- a stand that would make any reforms gradual and over the long term.
The party insists its platform is sound -- vetted by independent, if left-leaning, economist Mike McCracken of Infometrica Ltd. -- and can form the basis of a budget and policy framework for government.
McCracken's modeling of the economic effects of stimulus spending is the backbone of much of the analysis done on the Conservatives' Economic Action Plan.
"This budget represents a package in line with the fiscal framework noted in the March budget, but with a major set of changes in the mix," McCracken concluded after reviewing the platform.
"These changes result in more resources for the environment, for people, and for provincial actions, with less resources being given to the corporate sector."
But he had several major reservations.
Since the NDP uses the same fiscal base as the Conservatives did in March, the party needs to address what it would do with the major expenditures introduced by the Tories -- income splitting, fighter jets and increases to the Guaranteed Income Supplement for seniors, he said.
