Monday, January 09, 2006

Lead With Confidence

Everyone is talking about the Globe & Mail/CTV poll by Strategic Counsel that has the Tories eight points up on the Grits.

We're all thinking it's too good to be true. Surely this must be a push poll designed to create overconfidence in the party before tonight's leaders' debate?

Surely tonight the media will declare Paul Martin the hands-down winner and say that tonight was the night the Liberal Party came back from the dead?

You can sense the fear and dread inside Tory ranks.

Granted, we can't slacken the pace, and we certainly can't act as if the election's in the bag.

But we can act with confidence, which is a long way from arrogance.

The voters reward humility to a certain extent, but they will not reward timidity. Self-confidence sells.

The most telling number is not the popular vote number, but this:

Meanwhile, the Tories continue to build on their momentum. In increasing numbers, Canadians are saying the Conservatives have it and the Liberals don't. Nationally, 53 per cent said the Tories had the edge. That compares with 14 per cent who gave the nod to the Liberals.

"Basically everyone is getting mowed over in the Conservative momentum and it's happening virtually everywhere," Mr. Gregg said.

In Quebec, particularly, 47 per cent of voters in that province say the Conservatives have the most momentum heading toward the election, compared to 26 per cent for the Bloc and 12 per cent for the Liberals. Although momentum is not an indicator of voting intent, it does suggest that voters are giving the Tories a second look.


People want to jump on the bandwagon. Confidence in our public statements and policy announcements can only keep the momentum going.

Be ready to meet any and all attacks from an increasingly desperate Liberal campaign, but do not act as though they're about to drop a nuke on us. Because if we do, people will think there is, and even if there isn't, our own fears will slow and even turn back momemtum.

Let's not let our own fears do us in the way our own hubris did last time.

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