Yes. The "middle class" talking point is tired. We need a strong leader to sell our vision. It's two different visions that will be competing, I feel. One, the Liberal vision, where government services shrink and instead handouts are given and this is paid for via sales of public assets (which will result in more user fees), or two, increasing revenues via stuff like corporate tax increases and then enhancing services. The problem is that "get cash now!" is very appealing to most people. And actually being serious about government, as the NDP are, and trying to preserve and strengthen government services leads to questions of "is it possible?" and subsequent doubt over sincerity* (IE, "their child care claims are unaffordable and false, their raising the minimum wage pledge is deceptive and insincere...")
I feel there has to be a leader who's bright and competent to overcome this and make the case against the Liberal vision (like M̶u̶l̶c̶a̶i̶r̶, er, or, well, Caron actually seems a good choice to me), which will be easier to do next time around, I feel.
*see posts 547 & 548.
Mulcair is asked about the leadership race here: http://www.cbc.ca/player/play/827078211980/