OTTAWA—Thomas Mulcair wants the business community to know that New Democrats care about developing the economy, so long as it is done in a way that does not place the burden on future generations.

“Governing is about choices. Politics is about priorities,” the newly elected NDP leader said in a speech before the Economic Club of Canada in Ottawa on Thursday before telling the room that they might be surprised his take on the federal budget would be largely economic.

“You see, the NDP is resolutely in favour of development, as long as it’s sustainable development. The NDP is resolutely in favour of trade, as long as it’s fair trade,” Mulcair said in the lunchtime speech delivered in a ballroom at the Chateau Laurier.

“And the NDP is going to do everything it can to create a Canada that is more prosperous, as long as it is more prosperous for everybody.”

Building on a message that he championed throughout his successful leadership campaign, Mulcair later told reporters that he wants the NDP to attract voters from other parties and will do so by convincing the general public they can be good fiscal managers.

“Many Canadians share our goals, share our ideas, and we want to make sure that we are able to reach out beyond our traditional base and ensure that people understand that much as we’ve done in every province where we’ve been in power, we’re capable of providing good, competent public administration,” Mulcair said after his speech.

“There might have been one exception, the Bob Rae government in Ontario,” added Mulcair, taking a shot at the provincial NDP premier turned Liberal interim leader, who on Wednesday went after Mulcair and his combative style in a speech to caucus.

Meanwhile, Mulcair said that he would not exercise his right as a French citizen to vote in the upcoming presidential elections in that country.

“No,” Mulcair told reporters when asked whether, now that he is official Opposition leader, he would cast a ballot in the Apr. 22 vote.

Mulcair did not elaborate on his decision.

Mulcair holds dual Canadian-French citizenship through his wife, Catherine P. Mulcair, who was born in France.

During his speech, he echoed themes from both his leadership campaign and his earlier career as environment minister in the first three years of the Liberal government of Quebec Premier Jean Charest. Mulcair spoke of the need to internalize the costs of oilsands development and enforce existing regulations to protect wildlife, water and air.

“It’s not a question of east versus west. It’s not a question of saying this shouldn’t be taking place, that (the bitumen) should stay in the ground, but it is a question of looking objectively at the result of the way we are developing the oilsands to realize that it’s destabilizing our economy. It’s not just adding profit,” said Mulcair.

“But they got rid of the penny,” Mulcair said to laughter of the Conservative government’s decision to withdraw the copper-plated coin from circulation later this year, interpreted as a move to distract the public from the more sobering news in the budget.

Mulcair told the audience the government would better serve the public if it viewed every problem through the lens of sustainable development.

“If each time the government is about to make a decision, if it weighed the ecological, economic and social aspects, we will always arrive at the best solution, for our generation and future generations, because it’s not only our moral responsibility, but our legal obligation,” Mulcair said in his speech.

“With that I believe that together we can build a fairer Canada and a better world.”

The speech isn’t the only way the NDP is introducing Mulcair to a wider audience.

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The party began rolling out the biggest non-election advertising campaign in its history on Thursday with a French-language television spot featuring Mulcair.

The ad running exclusively in Quebec features Mulcair rolling up his shirtsleeves — something the late Jack Layton often did on the campaign trail — and then looking directly into the camera and saying: “We continue.”

English-language ads will begin airing after Easter.

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