Two political support polls have been released that offer up some very different interpretations as to the fate political fortunes for Canada’s political parties.
Over at the Globe and Mail a survey of voters by the Strategic Counsel commissioned by The Globe and Mail/CTV News shows that both the Liberals and Conservatives are in a virtual dead heat for support across the country.
Over at the Globe and Mail a survey of voters by the Strategic Counsel commissioned by The Globe and Mail/CTV News shows that both the Liberals and Conservatives are in a virtual dead heat for support across the country.
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This result comes about, despite a voter friendly budget and for the most part a stable bit of governing by the Conservatives. Both parties have the support of 32 percent of respondents, while the NDP dropped three points to 12 percent while watching the Green party jump up to 13 per cent.
The Conservatives continue to rule the west, struggle in Ontario and dipped a bit in Quebec. The Liberals one bright spot is the resurgence in Ontario where they lead the Conservatives by an 18 per cent lead.
The Strategic Counsel poll took place between November 8 and 11, offering up a rather different opinion from a poll on leadership held by the polling group SES Research and Sun Media, which found that the Conservative leader is faring much better in popularity than the other party leaders.
In the SES-Sun Media survey of November 6 to 8, the results showed that Prime Minister Harper’s acceptance level has risen at a rather astounding pace, selected as the best choice for PM by 37 per cent of the respondents.
The NDP’s Smilin’ Jack Layton has the universal respect of 17 per cent and the Liberals under Stephen Dion tumbled into a free fall of sorts, counting the support of only 13 per cent of those surveyed.
Dion’s sudden fall is highlighted by a drop of 10 per cent in just ninety days, and even worse for the Liberals in the Sun poll, is the increase of Conservative support in vote rich Quebec, where Harper is now the choice of 41 per cent of those surveyed, almost double where he was three months ago.
Those results seem to make sense of a strategy that shows the Liberals in absolutely no hurry to force an election any time soon. The meltdown of the Liberal leaders support in both polls won’t do much to help out the struggling leadership of Dion who while putting on a brave face of late, must wonder how long the power brokers of the Liberal party will take to start to grease the skids of their leader.
For Harper, the results of the Globe poll must leave him wondering what it’s going to take to gain some traction from the voting public. One strategy may be to begin to insulate himself and the party from potentially controversial situations.
That may account for the sudden about face on the Mulroney situation that broke out over the last week, a situation which has sent the Conservatives to make plans to have an investigation into just what went on between Canada’s 18th Prime Minister and the German industrialist Karlheinz Schreiber.
In politics optics is everything (as the Liberals learned oh so well from the Gomery hearings). With conflicting results in recent polling, the last thing that the leader of “Canada’s New Government” needs is to be tied to the current tempest surrounding “Canada’s Old Government of the eighties and nineties.”
With confusing poll figures leaving no sign of a particular sense of political direction, the last thing any Prime Minister would want to do is provide the Opposition and a struggling leader with a life ring. One that would help them stay afloat while they rebuild their numbers in those areas that still greet them with suspicion.
The Conservatives continue to rule the west, struggle in Ontario and dipped a bit in Quebec. The Liberals one bright spot is the resurgence in Ontario where they lead the Conservatives by an 18 per cent lead.
The Strategic Counsel poll took place between November 8 and 11, offering up a rather different opinion from a poll on leadership held by the polling group SES Research and Sun Media, which found that the Conservative leader is faring much better in popularity than the other party leaders.
In the SES-Sun Media survey of November 6 to 8, the results showed that Prime Minister Harper’s acceptance level has risen at a rather astounding pace, selected as the best choice for PM by 37 per cent of the respondents.
The NDP’s Smilin’ Jack Layton has the universal respect of 17 per cent and the Liberals under Stephen Dion tumbled into a free fall of sorts, counting the support of only 13 per cent of those surveyed.
Dion’s sudden fall is highlighted by a drop of 10 per cent in just ninety days, and even worse for the Liberals in the Sun poll, is the increase of Conservative support in vote rich Quebec, where Harper is now the choice of 41 per cent of those surveyed, almost double where he was three months ago.
Those results seem to make sense of a strategy that shows the Liberals in absolutely no hurry to force an election any time soon. The meltdown of the Liberal leaders support in both polls won’t do much to help out the struggling leadership of Dion who while putting on a brave face of late, must wonder how long the power brokers of the Liberal party will take to start to grease the skids of their leader.
For Harper, the results of the Globe poll must leave him wondering what it’s going to take to gain some traction from the voting public. One strategy may be to begin to insulate himself and the party from potentially controversial situations.
That may account for the sudden about face on the Mulroney situation that broke out over the last week, a situation which has sent the Conservatives to make plans to have an investigation into just what went on between Canada’s 18th Prime Minister and the German industrialist Karlheinz Schreiber.
In politics optics is everything (as the Liberals learned oh so well from the Gomery hearings). With conflicting results in recent polling, the last thing that the leader of “Canada’s New Government” needs is to be tied to the current tempest surrounding “Canada’s Old Government of the eighties and nineties.”
With confusing poll figures leaving no sign of a particular sense of political direction, the last thing any Prime Minister would want to do is provide the Opposition and a struggling leader with a life ring. One that would help them stay afloat while they rebuild their numbers in those areas that still greet them with suspicion.
With all the mixed messaging going on from the two polls, one thing seems certain, the Globe and the Sun papers certainly don't talk to the same audience. And if they do, somebody is having a little fun with the pollsters and causing havoc in the backrooms of Canada's political parties.
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