MONTREAL - Elected by Canada's New Democrats on Saturday night to succeed Jack Layton, Thomas Mulcair took his seat on Monday as the leader of Canada's official opposition.

The Outremont MP is taking over the reins of the NDP during a tumultuous time, with Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's seventh budget expected on Thursday. The budget is expected to slash billions in federal spending and cut thousands of public sector jobs.

"What concerns me about the Conservative approach [to spending] is that tomorrow we are going to see that they looked at the pyramid of public administration that exists to do one thing, deliver a service to the public, and that's unfortunately the first thing that they are going to want to chop off," said Mulcair.

"We are not going to let the Conservatives ride roughshod over parliament," said Mulcair. "We will use every opportunity to tell them what is wrong with their choices."

To view the entire interview with Mutsumi Takahashi, click on the video to the right.