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The oil-price collapse means we are likely to enter a general election campaign at a time of rising unemployment.

That creates opportunities for the opposition parties, but they both have work to do to convince Canadians they would be more effective stewards of the economy than the Tories.

Justin Trudeau’s challenge is to persuade voters he is not too callow to run a Group of Seven economy.

As part of that effort, he has recruited several experienced candidates with rich backgrounds in the private sector to bolster his economic team.

The man some are tagging as the finance minister in any Trudeau government is Bill Morneau, chairman of Canada’s largest human resources firm, Morneau Shepell.

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A federal election is expected in the fall, and the NDP is competing with Justin Trudeau’s Liberals as the favoured choice for “progressive” voters who want to remove the Conservatives from office.

“A fundamentally un-Canadian thing is happening,” Mulcair said in a speech at a conference organized by the Broadbent Institute, a left-leaning think tank. “The tremendous wealth that is being generated in this country today is landing in fewer and fewer hands.

“And those at the very top end are enjoying tax benefits that the majority just don’t have access to.

“This has meant that the middle class has had to carry more of the burden and that more and more Canadians have fallen through the cracks. This has created a growing disparity in Canada.”