Dalton McGuinty will not be the bearer of bad news.
The Ontario Premier tried that approach last year. It didn't work out too well. Grimly warning about the ravages of the recession upon his province, or sternly expressing his disappointment at the expense scandals that plagued his government, he seemed perpetually on the defensive, and the opposition Conservatives spent a lot of time in control.
And so, with last week's speech at the Liberals' biggest annual fundraiser, Mr. McGuinty signalled that he's going back to doing what his advisers believe he does best: talking optimistically about policies that excite him.
The address, which the Liberals billed as a preview of next Monday's Speech from the Throne, offered nary a word about the province's $24.7-billion deficit or the sacrifices it will require.
There was scarcely any acknowledgment of the challenges posed by skyrocketing health-care costs, which will soon account for more than half the government's program spending. Instead, after the requisite acknowledgment of the dark times recently endured, Mr. McGuinty forecast all kinds of sunshine.
"Some see a new world that threatens us," he said. "I see a bright future that beckons us."
Under the slogan "Open Ontario," the Premier unveiled a slew of new plans. He'll "get serious" about attracting international students, and work with Bay Street to make Toronto "one of the world's elite financial centres."
He'll develop the province's clean-water industry, and create thousands of jobs in Northern Ontario through chromite mining - "the most promising mining opportunity in Canada in a century."
To call these "policies" would be a little generous for now, since Mr. McGuinty has yet to explain how exactly he'll achieve them. But he'll no doubt be more than happy to do so in the months ahead.
He'll also talk about full-day kindergarten, and green-energy development, and the new harmonized sales tax - which, despite the controversy around it, is one of those policies that excite him.
And so, bearing in mind that Open Ontario is billed as a five-year plan, one begins to get an idea of what the Liberals' campaign platform will look like for the provincial election in October, 2011.
To pretend that new investments will be the only things they need to talk about, of course, would require the Liberals to reside in an alternate reality. And so it will fall to someone else to deliver a different message, about making sacrifices to live within the government's means.
That someone, almost certainly, will be Finance Minister Dwight Duncan. The Liberals may be able to avoid dwelling on their deficit problems in the Throne Speech, but they won't have that luxury in the provincial budget later this month.
Mr. Duncan can be expected to make at least a couple of showy gestures toward restraint, presumably involving the public service, and to keep open the possibility of asset sales. He may even signal there will be difficult choices ahead on health care. And with occasional assists from other ministers, he'll likely be expected to keep this dual message track going well past budget season.
The political benefits, at this stage of the election cycle, are obvious. And the Liberals could reasonably argue that the province is better served by a premier encouraging it to boldly step into the future, rather than wringing his hands.
The flip side is that Ontarians might also need a premier prepared to level with them about their challenges, and the sacrifices they'll be asked to make. In his seventh year of power, Mr. McGuinty has attained a degree of comfort that would let him have that conversation - much more so, at least, than ministers with a lower profile.
But by appearances, the Liberals had enough of Mr. McGuinty simultaneously trying to play good cop and bad cop. For the next year-and-a-half, at least, he'll try to stick to the role in which he's more comfortable.