Stephen Harper had only been Conservative opposition leader a few weeks when he summoned his then shadow cabinet, and offered an unexpected warning to anyone who might someday get the urge to replace him.
"Learn French," a former senior official recalls Harper advising any would-be successors in the room.
"And, for sure, be patient because he planned to become prime minister and stay there for a very long time."
Nine years later, all evidence suggests Harper retains an iron grip on his party's leadership, and there are no reports of wannabe successors lining up for French lessons.
Yet, for the first time since Harper moved into the Prime Minister's Office seven years ago, speculation about his possible retirement before the next election in 2015 has now become part of the routine chatter in political circles.
This week, CBC asked a dozen Conservative strategists, staffers and other insiders whether they thought Harper would stay for the next election.
The bets were almost evenly split, albeit most opinions were couched with all kinds of caveats and general uncertainty.
This week, reporters raised the issue with the prime minister publicly while he was on his annual summer tour of the Arctic, asking Harper point-blank if he would be leading the Conservatives to the polls just over two years from now.
He sounded almost offended by the query.
"Of course," he replied. "I'm actually disappointed you feel the need to ask that question."
One Toronto columnist used Harper's statement to dismiss the whole notion of any possible early retirement as largely the product of idle media minds trying to fill the summer news doldrums.
But there's a lot more than media mischief fuelling so much speculation in high places.
First and foremost, the Conservatives are in a heap of political trouble that has clearly damaged the party's standings in the opinion polls.
While this isn't the first hit the Harper administration has taken in the past few years, the difference this time is that the Conservatives are showing no signs of rebounding with voters.
If that downward trend in popularity continues well into 2014, what will Harper do if he is staring at an election from the basement of public opinion?