Federal NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair is seen with Nova Scotia Premier Darrell Dexter and BC NDP leader Adrian Dix during a NDP Leaders Summit in Ottawa, January 15, 2013. Andre Forget/QMI Agency

OTTAWA - There they stood, grinning for the cameras on Parliament Hill Tuesday — the leaders of the country’s socialist hordes, carbon-taxers all, economy-destroyers and energy industry-haters.

Or at least that’s what the NDP's political opponents would have you believe as federal NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair gathered nine provincial leaders — including two sitting premiers — for an afternoon meeting about the economy, resource development and federal-provincial relations.

Fred Delorey, chief spokesman for the Conservative Party of Canada, called the summit “a brainstorming session on how to get Canadians to accept higher taxes and a higher cost of living.”

Delorey, relying on the 2011 federal NDP platform as his source, accused the NDP of favouring a “job-killing carbon tax” and noted they “would like to add an additional new sales tax and impose higher taxes on job creators.”