Unionists are fed up with permanently being in the trenches and want to move forward with courage and confidence, the Ulster Unionist leader, Mr David Trimble, has said.
He was speaking yesterday as he launched his party's slogan for the Assembly elections, "Together Within the Union". The UUP manifesto will be published next week.
Appealing for a strong turn-out of unionist voters, he said it was time for unionists to be positive without abandoning their principles.
"This election offers all our people the chance of creating stability, the chance of shaping our future, deciding how we run our affairs, how we live with our neighbours, how we position ourselves within the UK.
"There is no quick fix, no magic formula, which is why the assembly you elect on June 25th is only a beginning." He said the Union was completely safe and it was time to address other matters.
"The constitutional position of Northern Ireland within the UK is no longer the issue. What is at issue is how best we avail of the opportunity the Assembly offers.
"Unionists are fed up with a permanent position in the trenches, surviving on a drip-feed of old rhetoric, redundant fears and laughable stunts. That is not going to get us anywhere. Unionism can and will do better." There was every reason for unionists to enter the Assembly more confident than ever "of our position within the Union and of what we can offer and deliver to people who yearn for a new beginning".
Mr Trimble said his party was adopting a far more constructive attitude than its main rival, the DUP. "The UUP is saying Yes to make the Assembly work, and not wreck it as the DUP is determined to do. Yes to sensible partnership with others who share our vision for a Northern Ireland at ease with itself.
"Yes to cross-Border co-operation if and where it makes sense, but we can and will ensure there is no threat to our position within the UK. The Assembly is an opportunity that has to be grasped and not shunned or derailed."
The chance of a lifetime existed to make a political breakthrough in Northern Ireland, he said. Too much had been invested to allow people with no alternative and no vision to snatch the prize of peace away. In an implicit reference to the DUP and UK Unionists, he added: "Don't let the scaremongering of others sell Ulster short."
The UUP leader said difficulties still lay ahead but insisted he was optimistic and prepared to go the distance.
"Yes, we have a hill to climb. But we are not going to go halfway up and then turn back. We are determined to provide the principled leadership that is needed to see the job through to a successful conclusion."