The big news out of this article is still that 49.9 percent of the respondents choose Prime Minister Stephen Harper as candidate whom would make the best Prime Minister. This was followed by Jack Layton at 30.5 percent, and dragging up the read is Stephane Dion with 19.6 percent of respondents choosing him as the best candidate for Prime Minister.
If you are a Liberal that has to really give you pause and wonder what the heck is going on. More Canadians think that Jack Layton will make a better PM then Stephane Dion!
What the Liberals have to reconcile are the following points:
- Stephen Harper is polling over his support base
- Jack Layton is polling over his support base
- Stephane Dion is polling at half of his support base
Harper's popularity extends across the country, except Atlantic Canada, where Layton held a slight 43-39 edge.
This is also bad for Stephen Harper, but was more expected due to the battling between Harper and Williams. That difference is almost within the margin of error. The critical thing here is that again Dion is out polled by Layton!
Not to get too infomercial but wait it gets worse!
Harper emerged ahead of Dion and Layton as someone who is best positioned to manage the country through tough economic times (50 per cent), who has "what it takes" to lead Canada (47 per cent) and who "has a vision of Canada that you can support" (43 per cent).
Again, polling well outside of his support base, though with the first question this is to be expected with incumbents.
What I still hate to hear but was also surprised to see the Liberals tarred with was the hidden agenda smear.
But respondents also expressed concern that both Dion and Harper had a "hidden agenda" with 41 per cent suspicious of the prime minister and 37 per cent of Dion.
It's annoying that that smear is still sticking around after all these years, but interesting to see the Liberals now the victim of it too. Perhaps they will stop with the it.
At the end of the day the Conservatives still have lots of work to do in Ontario and Quebec but they have a good solid base to work on.
1 comment:
I have always wondered at the thought process of any voter that would vote for someone they know is NOT the best person for the job. Are they that narrow-minded? Are they that ideological? If 32 percent say they will vote for Dion but only 19.8 percent believe he is the best man for the job, how sickenly partisan and selfish do you have to be to vote to turn our country over to someone even you think is not the best qualified. I totally disliked Joe Clark so when he was leader of the PCs, I voted for another party because I could not, in good conscience, vote for someone I felt was underqualified.
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