TORONTO - He was billed as the man able to jump-start the Big Blue Machine, a compassionate Conservative who shared a name with deep Tory traditions even as he wore his bleeding heart on his sleeve.

More than 20 years after the Bill Davis dynasty had shuddered to an inglorious halt, the likeable John Tory _ schooled at the knee of Davis himself _ was tapped to restore the party's progressive lustre.

Tory seemed the perfect cure for the Conservative hangover that followed the so-called Common Sense Revolution of irascible, hard-edged Mike Harris and slick-haired Ernie Eves.

A veteran of the Rogers Cable boardroom, he bore the mantle of leadership with an easy confidence, placing him in stark contrast to the rigid nervousness of Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty.

Indeed, there were polls before the election campaign began that suggested Tory was even more popular than the party that bears his name.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the polls.

"In the early going, when you asked people who sounds like a premier or looks like a premier, they liked Tory,'' said Henry Jacek, a professor of politics at McMaster University in Hamilton.

"In the last week or so, we've seen that turn around.''

It was in his failed mayoral bid in Toronto in 2003 that voters first began to warm up to Tory. They embraced his earnest pronouncements on the city's homeless problem, and believed him when he said poverty and social issues were among his highest priorities.

Since then, they've seen him weep openly on television when talking about his wife Barbara's narrow brush with a serious illness several years ago, and also when discussing poverty with the Toronto Star editorial board.

His charitable work has won him high praise from the province's editorial writers, many of whom have showered him with praise even as they shake their heads with incredulity at his one massive misstep.

Tory staked his reputation on a proposal to extend public funding to the province's private religious schools, a deeply unpopular plan that quickly proved to be a millstone around the neck of his campaign.

After weeks of defending the idea, he gave way, agreeing to allow frustrated caucus members to side with their constituents and vote against the proposal if it ever came before the legislature.

Since then, polls suggest, his popularity has sagged _ fuelled at least in part by a public perception of the about-face as a cynical, opportunistic ploy for votes, the very thing about politics he was supposed to despise.

"People have started to doubt Tory's political judgement,'' Jacek said.

Tory set out to be a different kind of politician _ an honest, credible, straight-talking leader who would restore the public's faith in the political system by keeping his promises.

Staff describe him as real and authentic. He wasn't afraid to side openly with the Toronto Maple Leafs in their recent battle with the Ottawa Senators, they said.

McGuinty, an admitted Sens fan, waffled and hoped for a tie.

After the Conservatives were rejected by voters in 2003, Tory set about rebuilding the party in a new image. Over the last few years, he has visited every riding in the province.

Polls showed people liked Tory more than McGuinty, and that they found him more "premier-like'' than the actual Liberal premier.

Conservative lawn signs give his name top billing and describe local candidates as part of the "John Tory team.'' He is front and centre in every positive Conservative ad _ including a painful one in which he tries to explain his convoluted position on religous schools.

Instead of visiting a series of contrived photo-opportunities, Tory has ignored advice from his strategists and continued to campaign door-to-door with the glaring scrutiny of the media.

"No bubble in his campaign,'' said one admiring Conservative strategist, taking a shot at McGuinty who has been accused of avoiding real voters. "What you see is what you get.''

David Docherty, dean of arts at Wilfrid Laurier University, said Tory's image has been a central part of the Conservative campaign because of his personal popularity. For a while before the election, Tory was not only polling ahead of McGuinty, he was polling ahead of his party, Docherty said.

People knew Tory as the head of the Canadian Football League and a failed mayoral candidate for the city of Toronto who acted honourably following his defeat, helping his opponents pay off their campaign debts, Docherty said.

"He wasn't McGuinty,'' Docherty said. "He was returning the party to its more progressive roots _ all of those things were good news.''

But his decision to allow a free vote on religious schools, and his support for a greater degree of private-sector influence in health care, made some feel Tory was no different than any other politician, Docherty said.

Not so, say Conservative strategists. Tory's decision to put his contentious proposal to a free vote was another insight into a different kind of politician, said one longtime Conservative working on Tory's campaign.

"He's a very thoughtful and considered guy,'' he said.

"The fact that he was honest about that process, honest about what he was hearing, relates to the kind of deliberative premier he will be.''