PLATFORMS CITED AS MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR IN ULTIMATE VOTE DECISION
[Ottawa – January 27, 2011] – The frozen political landscape appears almost totally inert. The Conservatives enjoy a mildly comfortable 7.5 point lead, but everything looks more or less as it did two weeks ago. These results are somewhat better for the Conservatives than in the late fall, but the outcome of an apparently looming election is very much in doubt. The public as forecasters say they lean to a Conservative result of the minority variety.
Of some interest given the pre-campaign positioning of the parties are questions… [More...]
LOOKING FOR A BIG BANG: SEEING NOTHING SO FAR – January 31, 2011
COMMENTS AND OBSERVATIONS BY FRANK GRAVES
[Ottawa – January 31, 2011] – Over the past two weeks, we saw a number of seemingly dramatic political manoeuvres. The Liberals dug into the historical political tool chest and produced a ballot framing around the question of whether you were better of five years ago than today. When Ronald Reagan asked this of Americans some 31 years ago, things were looking downright gloomy in post-Vietnam, recession-weary America. So how would this framing work in contemporary Canada? Just as the Liberals were launching this framing, Canadians were showing rising confidence in the country… [More...]