Prime Minister Paul Martin says he will resign if a public inquiry shows he knew about the sponsorship scandal that saw $100 million in public funds go to Liberal-connected advertising and public relations firms in Quebec.

"Anybody who is found to have known that people are kiting cheques, that people are falsifying invoices - me or anybody else - should resign," Martin said on CBC's Cross Country Checkup.

"I've made that very, very clear. I don't think we have to debate that ... Anybody who knew that kind of thing was going on and let it happen, they don't belong in public life."

It was one of several appearances Sunday for the beleaguered politician.

Martin sat down for his first one-on-one interview with CTV's weekly political affairs program, Question Period.

"Canadians are mad as they can possibly be, and I am as mad as I can possibly be," the Prime Minister said, gritting his teeth.

"But there is only one thing that counts now -- and that's to find out what happened and to make sure those who did it pay for the consequences of their actions."

Martin and his team are trying to fill the airwaves with a singular message -- that the sponsorship fiasco didn't bloom under his watch, and since taking office he has taken action to ensure it's never repeated.

"I acted within five minutes of the Auditor General's report being tabled," Martin insisted, adding that he had cancelled the sponsorship program on his first full day in the Prime Minister's Office.

But Martin's assurances, heard all week, seem to have held little sway with Canadians.

In a COMPAS poll published in The National Post on Saturday, about 80 per cent of Canadians say they think Martin knew more than he is letting on.

And a CTV/Globe and Mail/Ipsos-Reid poll released Friday, found that the Liberals have seen their support go from 48 per cent in mid-January to 39 per cent.

Although he refuses to be pinned down on an election date, it's clear the prime minister has the apparently volatile electorate in mind.

"We go into an election making it very clear we're dealing with this mess and we go into an election basically telling Canadians we are going to improve their lives, we are going to build a stronger country, we'll win the election," Martin told Question Period.

Conceding the sponsorship fiasco fallout is an unwanted distraction, Martin said he remains determined not to be moved from his agenda.

"I'm going to talk about health care and the education and the environment and our role in the world but this is an added burden and one I'm going to discharge.

"It is my responsibility as the Prime Minister of Canada to deal with it and I'm going to deal with it."

The complete interview with Prime Minister Martin aired countrywide at noon Sunday on CTV. And on Monday morning, Martin will be back on the network for an appearance on Canada AM.

Meanwhile, opposition MPs were also busy Sunday trying to stoke the fires of outrage.

"When people start to see the degree to which the Liberal Party was manipulating the government levers to get money to their partisans, I think the public is going to go ballistic," Monte Solberg, a Conservative MP, said on Question Period.

Manitoba NDP MP Bill Blaikie, also speaking on Question Period, and NDP leader Jack Layton both said any election should be delayed until after the sponsorship scandal is resolved.

"We think that Canadians have a right to have the information about what went on here," Layton told CFTO. "Let's get this investigation underway ... so that we can then have an election so that Canadians can be the judge of this government, which frankly has become too arrogant and too close to its corporate buddies."

Layton, in Toronto to be nominated for his Toronto Danforth riding, said NDP canvassers have been getting some "powerful" reactions from citizens.