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Adam Radwanski, globeandmail.com: The NDP seems to be less eager to bring down the government than it was even a couple of months ago, and there's a widespread perception that has something to do with flagging poll numbers. How do you respond to that?

Brian Topp, NDP national campaign director: I think the federal NDP has gone through the five stages of mourning on the coalition crisis, and has drawn the appropriate conclusions from it.

Mr. Ignatieff's Liberals are governing in effective coalition with Mr. Harper, and agree with the Conservative government on substantially all significant issues facing the country (including the economy, the environment, social programs, and foreign and defence policy). The NDP has accepted this as a political reality, and is therefore returning to its basic work in Parliament.

New Democrats are going to speak for people hurt by the present economic crisis. They're going to provide Mr. Harper with his real opposition. And, as they have done in every minority Parliament since the 1920s, the New Democrats are saying they will look for ways to make progress on the agenda the NDP committed to pursue during the last election. That includes using the NDP's balance of power position in Parliament to try to make progress.

Adam Radwanski: The shift in focus toward working within this parliament, though, does seem to coincide with speculation that the Liberals may stop propping up the Conservatives before too long. Is this not at least partly about preventing the Liberals from dictating the timing of the next election?

Brian Topp: This January, the Liberals chose - after a leadership change - to renege on their signatures and to enter into an informal accord with Mr. Harper. That's the key fact the NDP has had to come to terms with.

Inevitably this means the New Democrats must reassert their own freedom of action, and work to keep the commitments they made to voters only months ago through a new strategy - the prior one having been set aside by our friends on the red team.

The Liberals cannot and will not dictate the timing of the next election. Mr. Ignatieff has put Stephen Harper back into the position of being free to call an election whenever the Prime Minister wants. If opposition parties want to set an election date they must all act in combination in order to do so.

Adam Radwanski: But your party does seem to be less wedded to the idea of voting against the government now than it has been for the last several years. Other than the Liberals' positioning, what's changed?

Brian Topp: In November, New Democrats attempted to defeat the Conservative government and to replace it. But our partner in this enterprise switched sides. That's what's new.

So what now?

It was time to answer that question, and the answer seems to be to get back to work with the same determination on goals and flexibility on means as other parties in Parliament deploy.

Adam Radwanski: Given that there really isn't all that much of a policy gap between the Conservatives and the Liberals right now, are you surprised that NDP support has stagnated - if not dropped - in the past few months?

Brian Topp: I'm not surprised - so far.

The New Democrat caucus tried to do a big thing - tried to replace the government. And it didn't happen. That's the most memorable thing our team has done so far in this parliament. Undertakings that don't succeed don't build support.

The essentially seamless unity of purpose between the Harper Conservatives and the Ignatieff Liberals does now create an opportunity for the NDP - one New Democrats know they need to step up to by shaking off the events of November and addressing the issues Canadians are focused on today.

If the NDP succeeds in doing this, we'll (hopefully) be rewarded in the polls.

Adam Radwanski: Now that the NDP is looking to work within this parliament a little more, do you have any indication that the government is interested in pursuing some matters of mutual interest?

Brian Topp: I think everyone in Ottawa has sort of learned in recent months not to speculate about what combinations in Parliament might or might not do, until the cheque has cleared the bank.

Adam Radwanski: In the blogosphere, at least, there's been some speculation on the prospect of the NDP pushing for the Conservatives to look seriously at electoral reform. Is that grounded in anything?

Brian Topp: Democratic reform is a real issue, no doubt about that. An electoral system that awards an MP for every 22,000 Bloc voters and not a single MP to 900,000-plus Green voters is not serving the country well. And then there are the issues around responsible government profiled in December.

That said, I think it's a safe bet the New Democrats will be much more focused on what the economic crisis is doing to Canadian families - and on what the national government can do to help them.

Adam Radwanski: That focus, more specifically, will revolve around EI reform for the foreseeable future...?

Brian Topp: Our leader and caucus have been out stumping the country to consult about the economic crisis, and will be reporting their conclusions this spring.

I believe many Canadians have been telling us that income security in a key issue, to be sure. The means to address this matter likely include public and private pensions; child benefits; tax measures; and employment insurance.

Some of our friends on the red team have been talking in the press about using EI as a gadget to force the rest of the opposition to bend to their electoral interests. My bet is that Canadians will be more interested in seeing income security addressed seriously. We'll see at the time.

Adam Radwanski: The Conservatives will say, as they have this week, that it's a little hypocritical to push for a second stimulus package when you voted against the first. How do you respond to that?

Brian Topp: Our caucus found the January package inadequate to address the economic crisis. It is not being inconsistent to propose that better measures be introduced.

Adam Radwanski: Doug Bell would be very upset if I didn't ask about deal-making with other opposition parties. Obviously, the Ignatieff Liberals have no interest in a coalition before the next election. But there remains an excellent chance of yet another minority parliament after it. Does some groundwork need to be done between your party, the Liberals and perhaps the Bloc Quebecois to prepare for the different scenarios?

Brian Topp: Anything can happen in politics. But I can't imagine any serious work in that direction any time soon, given the outcome of the last effort.

For good or for ill, the Ignatieff Liberals have burned their bridges with the other opposition parties in the House, and are working in harness with the Harper government - with whom they share a broad consensus. They will play-act a crisis at some point if they feel it is in their political interests to do so, and we'll see if anyone else (their partners on the government side, the NDP or the Bloc) have any concurrent interest in playing along. It's hard to see that happening today, but circumstances will determine the outcome at the time.

Speaking of interests, I think it will always be a permanent interest of the NDP's (as is, or should be, true of all parties) to look for ways to get results in the House of Commons - in this and in future parliaments. That implies keeping an open mind on our options. Which, I think, is basically what Mr. Layton was saying this week.

Adam Radwanski: Mr. Layton came so close to taking his party to the Cabinet table, where it's never been before at the federal level. Since that failed to happen, there's been some speculation about his future at the helm of the NDP. What does he realistically have to achieve before handing over the reins to someone else?

Brian Topp: First thing worth saying: The federal NDP doesn't play leadership politics the way the Liberals and Tories do. We debate things, including the leadership, but don't generally divide into suicidal factions over leadership issues.

Second thing worth saying: Jack Layton has only been federal leader for six years. In that brief time he has taken our caucus from 13 to 37 members, added 1.5 million votes to our column, and has been working very effectively in Parliament in the best traditions of his predecessors. It's true that he didn't get to the Cabinet table (this time) - but he did force a Conservative government to do a 180-degree turn on its what-me-worry policy towards the economic crisis, and to adopt stimulus measures it fundamentally rejected only weeks before. Not bad for the first few weeks of a new Parliament.

So I think what lies before him and the federal team overall is to keep building on that excellent record, at the ballot box and in getting things done in Parliament. As discussed above, the focus (in today's circumstances) is likely to be on the economy. But as he has laid out in his books, Mr. Layton has some strong views on a number of issues - including cities, the homeless and the poor, the environment, and Canada's place in the world. I think he has a realistic chance to achieve progress on many of those goals with (in the big picture) what has so far been a steadily strengthening poker hand in successive parliaments.

Brian Topp, a former deputy chief of staff to Saskatchewan Premier Roy Romanow, was national campaign director for the NDP during the 2006 and 2008 federal elections and is co-chair of the NDP's Election Planning Committee.