Bounce or Free fall!

The fall out over, uh advergate I guess, (God! I hope somebody can come up with something better to describe this stink) continues. As Canadians rush to their favourite pollster to advise, "we're fed up and we're not going to take it anymore", or something like that.

An Ipsos-Reid poll taken immediately after Sheila Frasers' grim announcements, shows the Liberal Party taking a 9 percent plunge in public opinion. The newly merged Alliance/Conservative combination getting a 5% bounce up and Smilin' Jack Layton's NDP picking up 2%. Poll taker Darrell Bricker said, the plunging results are like a wildfire, with the flames getting blown higher every time the Prime Minister tries to do something.

The party dropped most in the area it had hoped to finally return to the Liberal fold, Western Canada. Spurned on by the talk show culture of BC, where the Martin Liberals have been bashed for days now, the party dropped an amazing 15%. The Bill Good show on CKNW took the cause on as his own over the last part of the week, fueling a raging storm of contempt. The debate in the province was fierce, very one sided and very critical of the Liberals, and Rafe Mair's not even back at his pulpit yet! God help the Martinites when he returns from his foreign expedition.

Liberal support declined 7% in Alberta and 13% in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. They lost 10% in Ontario, 5% in Quebec and only 1% in the Atlantic provinces. Congratulations Frank McKenna, you may have the only safe electoral road in the country, should you choose to climb aboard.

Paul Martin's own people, are also doing their own polling, trying to gauge the fallout, without an independent filter. Senior Liberals have already appeared (much like groundhogs, looking for their shadows) in public saying that they believe the decline is only temporary, and that support will rebound.

The party faithful however, might be a little less sure, perhaps asking whether anymore scandalous revelations, may be made public any time soon. The results of all the poking and prodding of the population, will go a long way to determining whether the Liberals will be able to call that Spring election or not. If it appears that the public are still hopping mad over the blatant disregard for their wallets, expect the election to be delayed until a more amenable crowd of voters can be found.

For his part the Prime Minister will take his battered image to the air again tomorrow, having agreed to appear on CBC Radio's cross country checkup with Rex Murphy. The Liberal party machine will no doubt be listening intently to the populace, trying to best paint their message accordingly. The court of public opinion is about to go into session, Judge Rex at the bench, and the jury all ears. One wonders if they're in the mood for a hanging?