HARPER/LAYTON SHOULD STAY, IGNATIEFF SHOULD GO, CANADIANS SAY

[Ottawa – October 29, 2009] – Stephen Harper’s federal Conservatives lead the second-place Liberals by a double-digit margin for the fourth week in a row, suggesting that the neck-and-neck race between the two major parties in the spring and summer has now been displaced by a new pattern of relative Conservative dominance.

“This is not a blip,” said EKOS President Frank Graves. “The Tories streaked into their current lead when the Liberals started threatening an early election in the late fall. However, they are now standing up despite negative news reports about the distribution of stimulus money and the confusion around the H1N1 vaccination program.”

“That doesn’t mean the Conservatives can’t be knocked off their current pedestal – their lead has actually ebbed slightly from earlier this month,” said Graves. “However, it does mean the other parties have their work cut out for them.”

EKOS’ conducts its weekly poll of Canadians for exclusive release by CBC. It features the most robust sample sizes of any regular poll of the Canadian public.

This week’s poll also found that a plurality of Canadians feel that Michael Ignatieff should step down as Liberal leader as soon as possible, and be replaced. Only current Liberal supporters think he should stay, and even among Liberals, support for Ignatieff remaining in his current position is a tepid 55%.

In contrast, Stephen Harper gets a very robust backing from the much more numerous Conservative supporters, though he too is rejected by supporters of other parties, who would like him to step aside.

Only Jack Layton get accolades all round. Supporters of every party think he should remain in his current job.
“These figures are another indication of Ignatieff’s current weakness as opposition leader,” said Graves. “Even Liberal supporters are not wild about him.”

“Harper is a more polarizing figure: Conservative supporters are enthusiastic about him, but not the supporters of other parties.”

“Jack Layton, it seems, is being measured by a different yardstick: not whether he is the best candidate for prime minister, but as a steward of his party’s traditional third-party role,” said Graves. “And right now, people like what they see. Layton is getting the credit for helping to avoid an election Canadians don’t want, and by pursuing policy goals in parliament that people associate with the NDP.”

Click here to download the full report: full-report-october-29

Posted on October 29th, 2009 under National Results • RSS 2.0 feed