Polls: Canadians aren't too happy with the Conservatives

POLLS today can’t tell you much about who will win a federal election three years from now.

What they can tell you, however, is how a political party’s message — whether from government or opposition — is resonating with voters right now.

On that count, the governing Conservatives should be hearing, loud and clear, that overall, Canadians don’t appear too happy with their performance one year into a majority mandate.

A series of polls through April had the NDP, under new leader Thomas Mulcair, in a virtual tie with the Tories. Last week, a Harris-Decima poll showed the NDP leading the Conservatives, 34 per cent to 30 per cent.

That’s a reversal of fortune from election day a year ago, when the Tories took nearly 40 per cent of the vote to the NDP’s 30.6 per cent.

Polling since February has also shown Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s ratings on competence, trust and vision sliding.

Why? The Conservatives have been on their heels on a number of fronts, from slipshod costing of the proposed F-35 fighter jets to questions about Ottawa’s move to raise the future Old Age Security eligibility from 65 to 67 for anyone currently under age 54.

On the OAS file, Ottawa has produced little supporting evidence that the change is necessary, and a poll in early April showed 57 per cent of Canadians against the move. Among affected adults, two-thirds were opposed.

Whether Mr. Mulcair can exploit the current NDP advantage remains to be seen, however.

Mr. Mulcair’s recent musings that an “artificially high” loonie, primarily inflated by oil-sands development, has devastated manufacturing in Central Canada seems a transparent play, as some observers have noted, for more votes in economically depressed Ontario.

The NDP leader’s logic is suspect, as manufacturing jobs have disappeared in a number of Western countries, regardless of the strength of their currencies.

But with his party strong in Quebec and the Atlantic region, and ahead in B.C., Mr. Mulcair is not wrong to conclude that attracting enough disgruntled Ontarians to consider voting NDP in 2015 could be a winning formula.

Right now, the Conservatives are helping his cause.

Original Article
Source: the chronicle herald
Author: editorial