The caucus had given him their unconditional support at a meeting the previous morning, members of NDP internal staff had already been shuffling to make way for changes, and a private congratulatory phone call with Quebec Premiere Jean Charest, old buddy from Mr. Mulcair's provincial Liberal days, had set the stage.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper was away on business in the Orient, so we still have the first head-to-head showdown between the two leaders to look forward to -- but the day still gave us a taste of what is to come.

It was Thomas Mulcair's day in Parliament, but it was also a day to showcase NDP unity.

The Party took full advantage of the occasion, even using the generally ignored period for statements by members that precedes question period (QP) to showcase the other leadership candidates.

The Conservatives made use of that pre-QP space, too.

They have their take-no-prisoners, attack-all-the-time reputation to maintain.

Most of the media have focused on Conservative MP Jeff Watson's attack statement, which was more or less a repetition of the "Mulcair the opportunist who gets along with nobody" talking points in Fred DeLorey's memo and James Moore's statements to media at the convention.

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For the past six and a half months, Nycole Turmel has had to deal with a situation without precedent in Canadian parliamentary history.

Last May, for the first time in its history, and in the history of the CCF that preceded it, the New Democratic Party won the status of Official Opposition.

Even for an experienced leader the task of building an effective force in the House with the newly-elected group of 103 NDP MPs, so many of them rookies, would have been daunting.

Turmel had to undertake that task in the wake of the sudden death of the leader, having never even sat in the House herself.

At first, shock and sadness