OTTAWA—Former parliamentary budget officer Kevin Page will play a role in ongoing efforts by the New Democrats to convince Canadians they can be trusted to manage the economy.

Page will deliver a speech at the NDP caucus strategy session this Friday, in which he plans to undermine the idea that the Conservatives have been sound fiscal managers while in government.

“I think it has been a great confabulation, that they are great fiscal managers,” Page, now a political studies professor at the University of Ottawa, said in an interview Wednesday.

“The GDP numbers look good relative to other countries. Our fiscal balance numbers look good relative to other countries, but I fear it’s a house of cards when you look underneath at what is going on. Can we deliver services for veterans? Can we deliver services in food inspection? Can we deliver search and rescue services?” said Page.

The inaugural budget watchdog was often a thorn in the side of the Conservative government during his five-year tenure, even going to court, unsuccessfully, to clarify his mandate after some departments refused to hand over documents detailing proposed spending cuts.

The speech will no doubt be welcomed by the NDP, which finance critic Nathan Cullen says has two main goals for its strategy session and the months leading up to the fall federal election.

The first is “to dispel the greatest myth in Canadian politics, which is that the Conservatives are good with the economy and the helpful thing is that we have a lot of facts on our side,” Cullen said.

The second involves proposing its own ideas, which the party has been doing through revealing major planks of its election platform ahead of the October election.

That includes its child-care program, raising the minimum wage and diversifying the economy.

“Those are credible and important conversations that have been utterly ignored by the Conservatives,” he said.

Cullen is optimistic their message will be heard.

He has been leading a charm offensive with the business community — including meetings with the major banks — and says the reception has been warm.

“Let’s put it this way: I don’t have to fight for meetings,” Cullen said.

“Most of what they want is certainty,” Cullen said of the business leaders, explaining they have been asking questions about NDP plans to increase the corporate tax rate to resemble U.S. levels as well as seeking social license for energy projects.

Page reserved his judgment on whether the NDP would have a better record, but he said he was impressed with the questions they asked his office — from the cost of the war in Afghanistan to the details on austerity cuts — when he was parliamentary budget officer.

“They were the right questions to be asking.”

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He said he has been approached by the NDP as well as other parties about his interest in running for office, but his answer was no.

“I’m not going to be a political person in the near future, certainly not in the 2015 campaign,” Page said.