Parliament returned this week following the summer and a phenomenal month of national mourning for NDP Leader Jack Layton. On Monday, the mood at the House of Commons was sombre during a moving tribute ceremony for Layton, who was a constant electrical force in that building until so recently.

By afternoon, MPs were all business, in a House remarkably remade from last April — or even last June, when the new crop of NDP MPs were as green as grass and visibly nervous. As many as eight of the newbies spoke, all of them quite forcefully, in a Question Period dominated as never before by NDP critics.

The new Parliament will look like interesting times on a run-away train with Stephen Harper at the controls of a majority government stoppable only by enormous public outrage.

This week, with the world economy in crisis, he chose to introduce a draconian crime bill that will cost the provinces billions and provide a breeding ground for hardened criminals living in the kind of unescapable underclass to which so many Americans have been consigned by "three-strikes" laws and mandatory minimum sentences.

In keeping with the theme of doing the dirty work early, he declared he would take steps that will rapidly kill the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB), despite a summer plebiscite of grain producers who voted to keep it.

The NDP's Pat Martin (Winnipeg Centre) says only a huge extra-Parliamentary struggle can stop what's happening. "The Conservatives have tried every trick in the book to dismantle the Wheat Board and they've been blocked in the courts," he told Straight Goods News. "The legislation is clear. The government is not allowed to alter the marketing of grain without a plebiscite vote of the majority of farmers."

In response to this year's plebiscite, Harper will now change the legislation so he can unilaterally and arbitrarily dismantle its marketing system, "and that means the wheat board will die, I predict within three years," said Martin.

"The big agri-food consumers want to control the food chain from the seed that goes in the ground... all the way to the final retail product," said Martin. "That vertical integration of food supply chain... will have a negative effect on both the producer and the consumer."

Instead of cooperative marketing by farmers, "big agri-food giants" will have a monopoly, he said. "That's why I asked the Minister today whose side is he on. They own the food supply in probably half of the world, and it drives them crazy that they can't have this market share. Well, these guys are just giving that market share back to them for no advantage."

"Why is he doing the American Agrifood giants' dirty work for them? Thirteen times they went to the WTO and complained that the Wheat Board is so beneficial to Canadian farmers it constitutes an unfair trade advantage, and 13 times the WTO ruled there is nothing unfair about farmers marketing together. It's an ideological crusade and ... disastrous for the Prairie economy."

The government continued to move at a familiar beat. Stephen Harper and his ministers crowed that corporate tax cuts are all that's needed to create jobs, and that he'd received a mandate to proceed on this basis.

"Cutting taxes to the ones that make the big money, not the ones that are in trouble," said New Brunswick's Yvon Godin. "I don't believe that to give a tax cut to the bank—where they made $20 billion last year and paid themselves $11 billion in bonuses—is the right way to go. I don't believe by taking Service Canada and laying off people is the right way to go. Canadians will not get the service they should get."

Godin said that the jobs being created in his community are mostly minimum wage. "You just have to see down home the jobs that are being created. We didn't have those kinds of jobs before."

At a scrum, NDP Foreign Affairs critic and possible leadership contender Paul Dewar had some sharp words for Harper's international approach.

On Palestinian statehood, he said "Most people would like to see a government that's bringing the parties together to negotiate a two-state solution. The Harper government, before anything was brought forward said 'We oppose it.' It seems to be a legitimate process to bring something forward through the United Nations."

Asked about the Saudis objections to advertising that suggests Alberta oil is "ethical" compared with that of sources like their own product, Dewar expressed skepticism. "When it comes to things like conflict minerals, the same people who are suggesting that we have ethical oil aren't promoting the idea of having corporate social responsibility in the extractive industries in places like the Congo."

Amidst all this, the NDP is in the throes of a leadership contest that could be exhausting, bruising, and divisive. Opposition House Leader Thomas Mulcair met reporters on Monday morning to discuss the upcoming session. He was, as usual, pointed and quick (One reporter, trying to get attention, bellowed "In English," and Mulcair interrupted himself, with a grin, and said "I am speaking English.")

When questions arose about the leadership campaign and why he, as a potential leadership contender, was allowed to keep his Caucus duties and speak on behalf of Caucus when others were not, his emotions may have shown. "Because I was elected," he replied.

The race to succeed Layton will be interesting to watch, and daunting to enter. The bar has been set high with the nearly immediate entry of party president and career backroom worker Brian Topp into the fray. Almost immediately after Layton's death, leaks appeared publicly that he was considering a run or being asked to consider it.

Last week Topp launched his campaign in the company of former leader Ed Broadbent and new Quebec MP Françoise Boivin, whose name had been mentioned as leadership material herself.

In his Parliament Hill news conference and in interviews across Canada, reporters were impressed with his deep understanding of policy, his serious and credible style and his often self-deprecating sense of humour. The question many ask is whether he can win an election when he's never tried at any level before.

It is clear, however, that Topp has an overwhelming advantage. He was one of the architects of Jack Layton's success as well as a confidante of his. He has an impressive record of success electing the unelectable, beginning with Phil Edmondston in 1990. From working with Roy Romanow in Saskatchewan, he understands governing and power. Finally, he's fluently bilingual and from Quebec.

And Topp has, quite evidently, the largely unspoken backing of a big portion of the Party's changing establishment. Broadbent's endorsement is intended to signal that, but the "establishment" only has so many votes in a one-member, one-vote system.

Despite Quebec's recent Orange Crush, as Mulcair made clear in his comments Monday, there's still a widespread perception that a Quebec politician like Mulcair would be at a disadvantage because the party has so few members in Quebec.

This expressed concern for Mulcair seems at odds with enthusiasm for Topp, who is totally unknown publicly and also from Quebec—with no reason to believe he would do any better in the same situation. As for Topp never having run for office previously, his profile isn't that different from Stephen Harper's in 1988—a high energy political animal and strategy wonk who figured out, from working in the game, how to win.

Perhaps a well-liked and well-known younger MP like Paul Dewar of Ottawa or Peter Julian of Burnaby do better in an election determined by ordinary, largely English-speaking party members? Or perhaps Mulcair would so impress non-Quebec NDPers that they'd vote for him precisely because they thought he could win, feeling that Canada needs a tough son-of-a-gun to stand up to Harper.

The problem for all contenders is the enormous risk of entering the race now that Topp has bolted to the front with such strong support. Liberal leadership contenders from the 2006 race like Ken Dryden and Stéphanne Dion (the winner) are still burdened by six-figure debt from their campaigns.

Few NDPes may feel they can afford such a risk. A candidate needs at least $200,000 to get in the game, all of which has to be raised from individual party members, most of whom are tapped out by provincial, as well as federal elections this year.

So Brian Topp, at this point, has a decided advantage and offers real promise to the NDP. It would be unfortunate and unhealthy, however, for the party leadership to be uncontested like the Liberals' in 2009 when Michael Ignatieff inherited a legacy, which he soon squandered. (X)

Ish Theilheimer is founder and president of Straight Goods News and has been Publisher of the leading, and oldest, independent Canadian online newsmagazine, StraightGoods.ca, since September 1999. He is also Managing Editor of PublicValues.ca.