Prime Minister Paul Martin insists he will remain focused on governing, despite mounting pressure from opposition parties to force an election early in the new year.

"I'm going to govern and I'll let the opposition play politics," Martin told reporters in Belleville, Ont. Thursday.

Martin said his government had an ambitious agenda involving aboriginal issues, the environment and cutting down on wait times for medical procedures. He said he wanted to see that completed before asking voters to cast judgment.

Martin's comments came a day after NDP leader Jack Layton, who was earlier this year responsible for keeping the minority Liberal government alive, revealed plans to topple it from power.

Layton said his party will introduce a motion on Nov. 24 that will call on Martin to dissolve the House of Commons in the first week of January and hold a February election.

The NDP leader called his proposal a "common-sense solution" that allowed Canadians to escape a Christmas election, but didn't allow the Liberal government to decide the timing of a vote.

Speaking on CTV's Canada AM Thursday, Liberal House Leader Tony Valeri said if opposition parties had truly lost confidence in the government, they should put forward a non-confidence motion.

"There is an election timetable that has been set by the prime minister," he said.

"If the opposition leaders do not want to follow that election timetable, then they can put forward a motion of non-confidence. That means there would be an election before Christmas. It means the energy bill would be killed. It means that the increase in salaries for soldiers in Afghanistan would not happen," he said.

"I think Canadians are looking for an election in the spring."

The prime minister said he wouldn't let opposition pressure derail the government's efforts to address important issues in the areas of health, trade, and aboriginal affairs.

"This is a matter between the (opposition) house leaders," Mr. Martin said.

"As far as I'm concerned, we were elected to govern. We have a very ambitious agenda that we want to complete, beginning with some of the questions that were asked here today."

Campaign-style promises

Part of that agenda includes a fiscal update on Monday in which the Liberals are expected to detail their pre-election platform. It's believed Finance Minister Ralph Goodale will announce a projection of a whopping surplus between $10 billion and $12 billion.

In a campaign-style speech delivered in front of devoted Liberals in Toronto Thursday evening, Martin also promised to keep cutting taxes and to keep putting "more money into the pockets of Canadians."

The prime minister's statement adds weight to reports that Goodale will pledge corporate tax cuts and income tax reductions for middle-income Canadians on Monday.

Facing a snap election, the Liberals have substantially beefed up their mid-year update due to the fact they may not get a chance to introduce a full-scale budget. They're avoiding calling the update a mini-budget because of the procedural and legislative obligations they would be forced to follow under such a formal plan.

Conservative counter-attack

Meanwhile, the Conservatives are threatening to block Goodale from delivering the document on Monday, calling it nothing but an election platform.

Conservative finance critic Monte Solberg has urged fellow opposition MPs to stop Goodale from using the all-party Commons finance committee as a venue for delivering the document.

"The government started out saying it was just an (economic) update, then it was a 200-page update ... and we got to thinking it's obviously a lot more," Solberg told the Canadian Press Thursday.

"If this turns out to be just a big election platform, we want the ability to stop them from presenting it to the finance committee."

The Liberals said if Solberg's motion passes, Goodale could still deliver his statement directly to the House of Commons or through a press conference.

Conservative Leader Stephen Harper said it's clear that the minority Liberals are desperately trying to win over voters with expensive promises.

"This is just the government trying to change its financial policies again because they're not popular with Canadians," Harper said Thursday after a speech in Winnipeg.

The Liberal government, said Harper, should realize that "because of the parliamentary situation and because, more importantly, it has been named in a judicial inquiry on corruption, it no longer has either the democratic mandate or the moral authority to recklessly promise and spend taxpayers' money in this country."

Harper is expected to meet with Layton and Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe to discuss the implications of the NDP proposal over the next few days.