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Ontario NDP leader, Andrea Horwath, gets hugs from Mohaned and Falastin Dorre while out canvasing in Toronto on Sept. 5, 2011.Deborah Baic/The Globe and Mail

Andrea Horwath is riding a high not of her own making. And she knows it.

As the writ drops, the Ontario NDP is looking pretty good: The party is polling higher than it has in years, and its two main opponents are occupied taking swipes at each other.

Few people have a bad word to say about Ms. Horwath. But often that's because they have no idea who she is.

During noon-hour canvassing in Toronto's Davenport riding, NDP candidate Jonah Schein is a familiar face to people who saw him campaign locally last year. The woman with him, however, is largely unknown.

"I'm Andrea," she says, again and again. "I'm the party leader."

Almost every time, the reception is warm, if bemused.

Nasra Ibrahim hasn't yet decided how to cast her ballot. But she says she loves the NDP. Why?

"Jack Layton," the Sudanese-Canadian says. "He reminded me of my dad."

It's weird, Ms. Horwath acknowledges, that much of the goodwill she finds on front stoops, in falafel joints and in subway stations is directed at someone else.

But she's not about to stop them.

"It's a matter of making sure that you respect people's desire to still talk about Jack," she says of the politician she'd go to for advice. "I would never want to shut people down and say, 'Well, it's not about Jack.' That's not the case.

"People need to get this stuff out of their minds and off their chests. And if this is the first time they're able to do that with someone they feel is connected to Jack, then I'm okay with that. It's not something I bring up."

The tricky part for Ms. Horwath will be to use that goodwill to get people excited about her and her policies.

"It's a chance to bring that optimism, some of those positive solutions that Jack was talking about to the Ontario scene."

She insists she doesn't care about polls, despite one on Monday that put her party at its highest point in at least seven years but showed that her own popularity hasn't budged. And she's trying to ignore the aggressiveness of the campaign unfolding around her even as the Liberal Party pays a staffer to trail her.

"I don't think people like that sandbox politics any more."

To brand herself before someone else does, she says, she'll try to focus on her roots in Hamilton as an activist and city councillor, and where she got her ticket into Queen's Park, beating a Liberal dynasty in a 2004 by-election. (She still drops such phrases as "Working with people to make change.")

If there's anywhere she can make that pitch, it's Davenport: The federal NDP swept the eclectic and immigrant-heavy Toronto riding in May, when Andrew Cash defeated Liberal incumbent Mario Silva. Here, the provincial party is trying to unseat veteran Liberal MPP Tony Ruprecht.

Davenport and ridings like it will test whether the Ontario NDP can mobilize that same degree of enthusiasm – or whether the party's provincial incarnation is just not ready for the big leagues.

Ms. Horwath will have to win over the likes of Enzo Gangemi. The Bloor Street butcher voted for Mr. Cash in May. Now he isn't so sure where to throw his support.

At the same time, Ms. Horwath has to fend off accusations that, by attempting to appeal to the populist centre – mirrored by Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak – she is abandoning the party's traditional leftist roots. What breed of New Democrat promises a cheaper fill-up?

A realistic one, she argues.

"I don't think people think about left or right or middle. They think, 'Oh, I'm having a tough time getting a job,'" she says. "Let's face it: When Tommy Douglas brought health care in, it was an affordability issue.

"These are not strange concepts for New Democrats."

Either way, she's got her work cut out for her. And the rookie leader says campaigning still gives her butterflies.

"It's all new, right? … It can be a little bit, ah, scary's the wrong word," she says, pausing. "It's a nervous excitement."

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