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Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau takes part in the National Day of Honour Ceremony at the Metawa Armoury in Calgary, Alta, on May 9, 2014. HANDOUT/Justin Trudeau

Whos the hardest working federal opposition leader, Tom Mulcair or Justin Trudeau?

The two are engaged in a pre-election skirmish over that question, offering a glimpse of the pitched battle to come between New Democrats and Liberals next year, when each leader will attempt to persuade voters that he is more deserving than the other to replace Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

And its no frivolous question. Its the same one late NDP leader Jack Layton raised to devastating effect during the 2011 election campaign, helping to sink the Liberals and vault his party into official Opposition status for the first time in history.

During the televised English-language debate, Layton pointed out that then Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff had missed 70 per cent of the votes in the House of Commons, the worst record of any MP.

If you want to be prime minister, youd better learn how to be a member of Parliament first, Layton admonished Ignatieff. You know, most Canadians, if they dont show up for work, they dont get a promotion.

Voters evidently agreed. They fired Ignatieff and demoted his party, which was relegated to a third-place rump.

Since Trudeau took the helm a year ago, the Liberals have bounced back into the lead in most opinion polls while Mulcairs NDP has sunk back to its more traditional third-place slot. Trudeau has accomplished that feat primarily by playing to his strength his ability to connect with people, who more often than not, behave in his presence like gushing adolescent groupies meeting a rock star.

Thats meant plenty of travel across the country. And thats opened him up to the same charge of being an absentee MP that finished off Ignatieff.

In an apparent attempt to head off a reprise of that unhappy experience, the Liberal party this week sent out a fundraising email which proclaimed The Real Hard Work (doesnt always happen in Ottawa). It came on the heels of a Quebec television network report revealing that Trudeau has shown up just 41 per cent of the time for question period in the Commons so far this year, slightly ahead of Harper but well behind Mulcairs 66 per cent.

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NDP, Liberals jostle over Trudeaus absences from House of Commons