Liberal Leader Stephane Dion says this week's debates will give him the chance to show Canadians that he's ready to become prime minister.
Dion, speaking to CTV's Canada AM Monday, said he's looking forward to being in the living rooms of Canadians.
"Up to now they have seen on their TV a Stephane Dion that does not exist," Dion said. "The one that Mr. Harper wants to describe to us."
He said the debates will show Canadians how much he cares and how prepared he is for the country's top job.
The French-language debate is scheduled for Wednesday and the English-language debate will take place Thursday.
Despite Dion's confidence, a new poll shows voters in 45 battleground ridings have extremely low expectations for his performance in the debates.
According to a Strategic Counsel poll, conducted from Sept. 24-27 for CTV and The Globe and Mail, just eight per cent think Dion will outperform the other leaders.
Most voters (42 per cent) thought Conservative Leader Stephen Harper would out-perform his rivals.
NDP Leader Jack Layton received 20 per cent of the votes while Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe and Elizabeth May both had 7 per cent.
Unsurprisingly, only two per cent of Conservative supporters thought Dion would be the best debater. But among respondents who identified themselves as Liberal voters, the number was also relatively low:
- Stephen Harper (Conservatives): 28 per cent
- Stephane Dion (Liberals): 22 per cent
- Jack Layton (NDP): 20 per cent
- Elizabeth May (Greens): 10 per cent
- Gilles Duceppe (Bloc Quebecois): 1 per cent
Meanwhile, Dion said Monday his strong convictions have helped him to ignore the personal attacks out of the Conservative camp.
"Never an individual has been attacked by so many millions of dollars of low-blow attack ads than me and a policy attacked by millions of dollars of low-blow attack ads like the Green Shift," said Dion.
"We'll go through that and we'll win the election."
Dion said he was convinced he'd win because the Liberals have "good policies for the people, to create jobs for the people, to save jobs and to have a leading economy of the 21st century."
