"The dynamic in Ottawa has changed. New Democrats are re-energized, reunited and ready," he told reporters in the foyer of the House of Commons.
Cullen, who was appointed to his new role last week by NDP Leader Tom Mulcair, said the F-35s, potential electoral fraud, and Monday's revelation about an expensive hotel stay by International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda in London, are among the controversies associated with the government.
"As the scandals pile up, one of our challenges is which one to focus on," Cullen said.
He vowed, however, that the NDP will continue to be "a party of proposition not just opposition," and that it is willing to work with the Conservatives and any other party to get something good done for Canadians.
Cullen also indicated what kind of approach he will personally use in his role as House leader, saying he won't allow the remaining weeks in the Parliamentary calendar before the summer break to be consumed by political antics.
"My goal is to ensure that even if our opponents are misbehaving and distracted in Parliament, our team remains steady and dignified," he said.
Government and opposition benches are expected to be at full strength this week. MPs are coming back from two weeks of work in their ridings, and the New Democrats are no longer in transition following a seven-month leadership race brought on by the sudden death of party leader Jack Layton from cancer last August.
Mulcair appointed 54 MPs from the 102-member NDP caucus to his shadow cabinet last Thursday, giving former leadership rivals such as Cullen prominent posts, and he named another 23 MPs as deputy critics.
Speaking from an Earth Day rally in Montreal on Sunday, Mulcair said "our focus is to start showing Canadians that the Conservatives, despite their branding, are lousy managers of the public purse."
Government House leader Peter Van Loan said the government is prepared to defend itself and expects a tougher fight from the NDP with Mulcair's new team in place.
"I think that perhaps we'll all see a sharpened focus on policies and policy differences between us," Van Loan said.
While the NDP will begin to paint the government as fiscally irresponsible, the government is already at work painting a negative picture of both New Democrats and Liberals.
According to Van Loan, the Tories want Canadians to see the NDP as "a party that is committed to higher taxes, big government, larger debt and deficits, and preventing the job creation that we could see from responsible resources development."
The Conservatives have been running attack ads against interim Liberal leader Bob Rae since March.
Military procurement
The government and Opposition will square off on the Tories' decision to replace Canada's aging fleet of CF-18 fighter jets with 65 F-35s and subsequent findings by the auditor general that cabinet likely knew the costs of acquiring the F-35s was $10 billion higher than the public was told.
On Tuesday, members of the House's public accounts committee will meet for the second time in less than a week to decide which witnesses to hear from in their study of the auditor general's findings.
Liberals have accused the Conservatives of using their majority on the committee to stifle debate by holding sessions behind closed doors and hearing only from Conservative-friendly witnesses. But according to Van Loan, the government's "approach is to ensure that any procurement process proceeds in the best fashion possible."
"We are making significant changes to how the process for finding a replacement for the CF-18s proceeds," Van Loan said.
In an interview Sunday, Liberal House leader Marc Garneau called for the resignation of Defence Minister Peter MacKay, saying "there is a problem with military procurement, whether we are talking about the F-35s or armoured vehicles."
"If this government wants to show that it is accountable, then somebody has to pay for the mismanagement that has occurred. So far, all we have seen is cover-up.
"The minister of defence bares a major responsibility. It's not acceptable for him to say he was not properly informed about it. He should be fired," Garneau said.
However, the government house leader maintained no public funds have been mismanaged.
"We have a situation here where we're quite fortunate: no money has been expended, there is no contract to purchase airplanes yet, and we're in a position where we can put in place the protections before that expenditure of funds occurs so that taxpayers' interests are protected," Van Loan said.
Budget 2012 under scrutiny
The federal budget will also come under scrutiny as the government moves to table its budget implementation bill and opposition parties continue to highlight the impact of the cuts.
While the Conservatives have maintained the majority of the cuts will not impact services to Canadians, Cullen said the impact of the cuts is "extensive and growing."
"Slowly and painfully, we're seeing what the full extent of the cuts are to services to Canadians," Cullen said, pointing to areas like food inspection.
"We're not really understanding what the rationale is for making these cuts," Garneau added.
According to Van Loan, the government is simply looking for "more efficient ways" of delivering the same services Canadians expect.
On Thursday, Kevin Page, the parliamentary budget officer, is scheduled to appear before the House finance committee, where he is expected to update members on his economic and fiscal projections and to compare them with the government's budget.
Page will also provide MPs with an analysis of the economic impact of the budget, as well as the fiscal impact of the government's decision to raise the age of eligibility for Old Age Security.
Election fraud
On Monday, defeated Liberal Borys Wrzesnewskyj will be before an Ontario court to argue that at least 181 voters were improperly allowed to cast ballots in the Toronto riding of Etobicoke Centre, and in some cases possibly more than once, during last year's federal election.
In a factum filed in response to Wrzesnewskyj's push to cancel the results in Etobicoke Centre and force a byelection, chief electoral officer Marc Mayrand said procedural irregularities should not be sufficient grounds to overturn the results.
Wrzesnewskyj lost by 26 votes to Conservative Ted Opitz.
Original Article
Source: CBC
Author: Susana Mas
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