Danny Williams kicked off a re-election campaign in Corner Brook on Monday night by telling supporters that huge leads in public opinion polls should not be taken for granted.

PC Leader Danny Williams reads a newspaper en route to a Corner Brook rally on Monday, the opening day of the election campaign.
(CBC)

"The one thing I just got to caution you on in this election is complacency. Everybody thinks we're going to walk away with this, but we're not," the Progressive Conservative leader told a rally at the Pepsi Centre.

"The Opposition are going to win seats, but they should be seats that they actually win…. The Opposition must earn your vote."

The writ for the Oct. 9 election — the first under fixed-date legislation — was dropped Monday, with politicians fanning out across the province.

Williams headed to Corner Brook, where he represents Humber West.

With the latest Corporate Research Associates poll showing the governing PCs at 76 per cent support among decided voters, more than one pundit has predicted that a political sweep is in the making.

Williams told the crowd of several hundred — smaller than some had expected — that the party will still need to fight eagerly over the next three weeks.

"Our biggest opposition is ourselves," he said. "We have to make sure we don't get too cocky or too confident."

Williams is poised to release the PC's platform on Tuesday. This edition of the Blue Book is expected to play heavily on broad themes of self-sufficiency, economic development and fiscal responsibility.

The platform is expected to include specific measures, including training more doctors and a plan to build memorials to soldiers killed in Afghanistan.

The party is also considering financial measures to encourage people to have more children.

"Families [are] important," Williams said after the speech.

"The fact that we have a shrinking population, we actually have more people dying in Newfoundland and Labrador than are being born," Williams said. "So there will be some incentive there. We will be dealing with that."

When the house of assembly was dissolved Monday, the PCs held 34 of the 48 seats in the legislature. The Liberals held 11, the New Democrats had one and two seats were vacant.