They say a week is a long time in politics. It makes the 49 weeks to the ACT election nothing short of an epoch.
And with Opposition Leader Elizabeth Lee already announcing a key election commitment it appears there will be a long campaign ahead.
The policy from the Canberra Liberals, to spend $100 million on suburb upgrades, is smart and it will hit home for many Canberrans who feel their neighbourhoods have been overlooked for far too long. However, the devil will be in the detail.
The role of the ACT chief minister is unique in that they are both essentially a mayor and a premier. There is a perception Andrew Barr has tended to focus more on the big issues, the state government issues and the local government issues have been ignored.
The bread-and-butter issues are overwhelmingly what Canberrans want to talk about when they chat with their MLAs. One only needs to listen to Mr Barr's monthly "Chief Minister's talkback" on ABC radio where the public has an opportunity to call in with questions.
But the Canberra Liberals will need to do a lot more than promise money for suburb upgrades if they want to win next year's election.
If Ms Lee's address on Monday to party faithful is anything to go by, it will be a very presidential-style campaign with the Opposition Leader firmly in the spotlight.
A video was played to the audience before the speech which highlighted Ms Lee's story and included interviews with her parents, partner, sisters and party colleagues. It was all focused on Ms Lee and not her colleagues.
Her speech was impressive but she was preaching to the converted. It will be interesting if she can sustain that energy in a crowd not entirely on her side.
Indeed, Ms Lee is the Canberra Liberals' greatest strength. She's personable, can hold her ground and is a moderate. She will be the hardest head-to-head challenger against Mr Barr in an election.
Even with Ms Lee as leader, the Liberals have not been able to shake their conservative image and Mr Barr will remind Canberrans of that at every opportunity.
While Ms Lee will bristle at attempts from her federal colleagues to intervene in territory politics within her party some celebrate these interventions.
Take the youth wing of the party, which recently posted on Facebook that it was "great to see leaders of the federal Liberal party take a stand against the abhorrent decriminalisation of ice and heroin here in Canberra".
But conservatism is not the be-all and end-all for the Liberals. Outside of political and media circles many ordinary Canberrans are not wasting their time on petty politics.
They care about having a good health system, being able to travel to work in an easy and timely manner, being able to pay for their living expenses and children being able to learn at school.
The Liberals have to present a viable alternative and actually articulate their plans on how they plan to fix issues. These actually have to be good policies and ones they can actually achieve.
Canberrans are not fools and policies need to have sound backing. Ms Lee is now on a path that shows the party has learned this lesson of the past.
