NDP Leader Jack Layton and his wife Olivia Chow leave an Easter service at a Toronto church on April 24, 2011.Andrew Vaughan/The Canadian Press
Jack Layton started the final week of the election campaign with a quick trip to New Brunswick - a province where his party has a lone seat and appears to have little opportunity for further gains.
But the NDP Leader is riding high on his swelling support elsewhere in the country and is keen to see it spread.
"I can feel the momentum right across the country, including right here in New Brunswick," Mr. Layton told about 150 people at a breakfast gather on the boardwalk at Saint John harbour.
"People are excited about making a new choice," Mr. Layton said. "I am ready, my team is ready and the people of New Brunswick are ready."
The New Democrats would like the surge that is happening next door in Quebec to drift across the border into this Maritime province.
So far, that doesn't appear to be happening. Polls and talk on the ground suggest it remains largely an blue-red battle.
But as someone who is running a national campaign, Mr. Layton is obligated to make at least one visit to New Brunswick. And this stop, his first and last since the writ was dropped, was brief.
Here in the riding of Saint John, where the Liberals and Conservatives are in a tight head-to-head race and the New Democrats are a distant third, the possibility of vote splitting on the centre-left looms large.
Any rise in support for Mr. Layton could spell trouble for the Liberals and hand the seat to the Tories - putting them one step closer to a majority.
Still, there was large enthusiasm among the people who turned out to see him on a chilly spring morning. They offered chants of "Jack, Jack, Jack."
And Mr. Layton was, as usual, all smiles.
"You deserve a prime minister you can trust," he told the cheering crowd. "Who'll show up and fight for you every single day. Well, you know me. I'm a fighter."