Will Jack Layton spoil Michael Ignatieff's road show?

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When things are looking down for Michael Ignatieff, he hits the road. This time, it's a coast-to-coast swing aimed at getting voters and pundits to focus on 20 ridings the Liberals hope to take from the other parties in the next election, in contrast to the dozens of Liberal seats that Conservatives and some pundits claim are at risk.

"He is standing up and willing to be counted" for a caring and compassionate Canada, Toronto-area MP Martha Hall Findlay said in an interview, as opposed to "the politics of fear, and mega-prisons and stealth fighter attack jets."

But Mr. Ignatieff won't be alone. NDP Leader Jack Layton, saying he's healthy and in shape after his fight with prostate cancer, will also be criss-crossing the county.

The Liberals have taken to arguing that a vote for Mr. Layton or for Green Party Leader Elizabeth May is really a vote for the Conservatives, because it splits the progressive electorate.

"This sense of entitlement needs to be put into check," NDP national director Brad Lavigne said. "It's the Canadian people, not the leader of the Liberal Party, who decide who gets to be prime minister."

A compendium of December polls produced by ThreeHundredEight.com has the Liberal Party at 28 per cent support, well behind the Conservatives (who are at 35 per cent) and far, far from anything approaching a credible governing scenario.

To add to the party's woes, there have been press reports citing unnamed Liberals who speak of unhappiness and discontent within the party and its election campaign team. Such fodder is the unhappy lot of opposition leaders, who can offer neither incentives nor punishments to impose discipline on the rank-and-file. Senior Liberals insist spirits are good and the party is ready for an election.

Mr. Ignatieff's itinerary confirms that whenever that elections comes, it will be decided in the Greater Toronto Area and Southwestern Ontario. Half of the 11-day tour will be spent there.

Things begin, though, in the capital, with a visit to Government House Leader John Baird's riding of Ottawa West-Nepean. The Liberal Party used to dominate Eastern Ontario, including Ottawa, but now the city and the region are almost entirely Conservative outside downtown Ottawa, testimony to the gradual but virtually relentless erosion of support for the party among groups and in regions that it once took for granted.

Then Mr. Ignatieff is off to Vancouver and Winnipeg, followed by four days devoted almost exclusively to the Toronto and Southwestern Ontario. There are three days in New Brunswick and Quebec, after which Mr. Ignatieff returns to the GTA for the final weekend.

One purpose of the trip is to remind voters that, unlike Prime Minister Stephen Harper's stiff and scripted public appearances, Mr. Ignatieff is perfectly comfortable in town halls and other informal settings in which the curious get to poke and prod him - verbally, at least - to their heart's content.

The tour ends with a caucus retreat in Ottawa beginning Jan. 26 that candidates in ridings from across the country will also attend.

Mr. Layton is working ridings that his party picked up in the 2008 election, as well as seats the NDP believes are in the "next tier" of winnability, focusing mainly on Atlantic Canada, Northern Ontario and the West.

His presence on the roads is an uncomfortable reminder for the Liberals that the Conservatives will be warning of a "coalition with the socialists" if the Liberals get more seats in the next election. It won't help Mr. Ignatieff that Mr. Layton is quite comfortable talking about coalitions and how they might work.