The following is a partially edited transcript of an interview with NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair, at the Outside Store in Sudbury on Monday morning. The full interview can be seen on NorthernLife.ca's YouTube channel .

The following is a partially edited transcript of an interview with NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair, at the Outside Store in Sudbury on Monday morning. The full interview can be seen on NorthernLife.ca's YouTube channel.



On maintaining his current momentum in the polls until election day, Oct. 19:





"The way to do it is to not take anything for granted. We know there are three months left in this campaign. We're going to work tirelessly -- morning, noon and night -- across the country. That's why we're enjoying this tour so much in Northern Ontario. But we're not taking a thing for granted. Polls are nice, but you can't put a poll in a ballot box. So we're just going to have to keep working until election day."



On facing the Conservative's huge election war chest and the expected attack ads, now that he's out in front:





"Don't forget, we give as good as we get. We put up an ad on social media last week that talked about facts around the Conservative record of corruption and conviction in police prosecution. And you know what? 500,000 people have seen that online. They do have deeper pockets than we do, but I think that our spending is a bit smarter than theirs, and it's producing a good result."



Does he have a personal interest in holding on to Sudbury, considering the Glenn Thibeault situation?





"It's the same personal interest that I have in all 338 ridings in Canada. I want progressive NDP MPs representing those communities. For too long we've watched the old line parties get people elected and send them to Ottawa and learn what Ottawa needed. I want people elected in their ridings so that Ottawa knows what their ridings need."



What impact does NDP Premier Rachel Notley's win in Alberta have on his campaign?





"It's a huge win for us. It reminds me a bit of what we went through in 2011. I know that (late NDP Leader Jack Layton) and I had been working for five years, shoulder to shoulder, across Quebec. I sensed that we could break through. And every time I would say that, the pundits and the analysts and the critics would say, you'll break through in Quebec. Well, in 2011, we got over 50 seats in Quebec. And then in 2015, you could have won a sizable bet if you had been predicting that the NDP would win in Alberta a majority government. And yet that's exactly what we did. So what people saw then was the ability of the NDP to win. That's why they're looking differently at us now."



What would a federal New Democratic government mean to cities and towns with crumbling roads and infrastructure?





"It's an important thing to understand that, as the federal government downloaded on the provinces -- especially under (former Liberal Prime Ministers) Paul Martin and Jean Chretien, and continued under Stephen Harper -- those provinces downloaded on municipalities and the regional governments. Right now in Canada, we're living something that's not sustainable. We're asking municipalities to take up the cost of 60 per cent of the infrastructure in the whole country, with only eight per cent of the tax base. Well, that just doesn't work out mathematically.



“The NDP will become a reliable, predictable, long-term partner for municipalities. We'll turn over more of the existing gas tax to municipalities so they can take care of things like housing, they can take care of things like transit and infrastructure. Those are the types of priorities the NDP has always cared about."



On how to restart the Ring of Fire:





"What you need is a government that's interested in developing it and that's going to have a plan to put the right people in place to work with the private sector. Because the private sector is always going to try to do the same thing -- get the governments to assume as much of the costs as they can. In all of this, we can't forget that First Nations have inherent rights, treaty rights, and Canada has international obligations to our First Peoples. So we have to take those into account.



“I would love to see the Ring of Fire developed intelligently, long-term, sustainably, adding the jobs here in Canada, the value-added jobs. Mr. Harper's approach has always been rip and ship. Whether it's the oil in the oilsands, or whether it's mining. You now, I'm so proud that Howard Hampton accepted to be my special adviser on the Ring of Fire. Everyone respects Howard. As I've travelled across Northern Ontario, the very fact he's running for us federally now has got people engaged, it's got them excited. I'm excited about Howard, and he's going to play a key role in an NDP government."



On a possible coalition government:





"As you know, we've opened that door any number of times, and the Liberals always slam it shut. My priority is to beat Stephen Harper and replace his Conservatives with a progressive government. We have a forward-looking, optimistic approach as to what we can accomplish together. I want to replace Stephen Harper's politics of fear and division with the politics of hope and optimism. And we have the confidence that we're going to be able to do that."

