The Plaid Cymru President, Mr Dafydd Wigley, is in ebullient mood. He relishes performing in public and grasps the hands of voters in Queen Street in Cardiff's city centre with a firm, two-handed clasp which takes some by surprise.
Plaid Cymru, and Mr Wigley in particular, is riding a crest of optimism in the final days of campaigning before tomorrow's "first general election" in Wales.
The fact is, party enthusiasts argue, that while Labour is destined to win the largest number of seats in the new Welsh Assembly, Plaid Cymru will not allow the legacy of Labour's "one-party democracy" to continue in Wales.
That confidence was borne out last night by a television opinion poll for HTV which gave Labour 47 per cent and Plaid Cymru 26 per cent support across Wales. The Conservatives are trailing behind at 14 per cent and the Liberal Democrats with 10 per cent. In the five regional additional member lists, Labour led again with 38 per cent and Plaid Cymru came in second with 29 per cent.
On those figures, the poll predicted Labour would win 34 seats in the Assembly - including the post of First Secretary for Mr Alun Michael - with Plaid Cymru taking the second largest block with 13 seats.
Such is the intense rivalry between Labour and Plaid Cymru here, that when the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr Gordon Brown, joined the Welsh Secretary, Mr Alun Michael, yesterday afternoon to visit the crucial mid and west Wales region, he hammered home the importance of voting for Labour in both the constituency and regional top-up list votes to see off Plaid Cymru's "separatist" economic agenda.
A Welsh Assembly led by Plaid Cymru would "chase away" jobs and businesses from Wales, he said. He played his cards close to his chest on the issue of Objective 1 funding for the poorer regions of Wales, preferring the vote twice for Labour message in the industrial towns of Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, and in Newport, south Wales: "If you don't want Plaid Cymru in by the front door, don't let them in by the back door."
The tactic is potentially risky. Despite the opinion polls observers fear that a high number of constituency seats for Labour could prevent Mr Michael winning the leadership of the Assembly through the top-up additional member system.
Despite pushing his own "vote twice for Plaid Cymru" message, Mr Wigley's walkabout in Cardiff yesterday afternoon found some voters confused. "Labour is likely to be the largest party, we know that. But winning seats on the regional list is very important to us because it allows us to provide the checks and balances on Labour," he tells a middle-aged woman who has yet to decide which candidate or party she will vote for on Thursday.
She is confused, as many are in Wales, about the new voting system which will ask them to vote twice. They are to elect 40 members to the Assembly on a first-past-the-post system, and 20 top-up members from five additional regional member lists.
Mr Wigley brushes aside the view that this confusion will cost his party valuable votes in the headlong battle against Labour. He simply asks the voters to use both votes for Plaid Cymru, or as one of the party's Cardiff candidates, Owen John Thomas, says, a "pick and mix" option combining the Plaid Cymru vote with the Liberal Democrats, to reduce Labour's share of Assembly seats.
Plaid's constant theme is that there is no room in Wales for Labour's "one-party democracy". The Labour Party in London is Plaid's bogeyman and Wales "must not be dictated to by Downing Street".
Asked if he believes that the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, considers devolution as a means of strengthening the Union, Dafydd Wigley tells The Irish Times: "I don't think Tony Blair begins to understand the whole concept of devolution. The way in which the Labour party in London has handled the Labour party in Wales is a disgrace and has led to massive reaction amongst ordinary Labour voters."
Such is his distaste for "one-party democracy" that he insists Plaid Cymru will not "get into bed" with Labour if it does not win an overall majority.
He was worked all his political life to lead a devolved Welsh Assembly, but if that doesn't happen, Plaid Cymru will work in opposition to secure law making powers for the Assembly within the first four years, similar to the powers of the Scottish Parliament and Northern Ireland Assembly.