Two new national polls show the federal Liberal has regained its lead over the federal Conservatives.
Canadian Press is reporting a poll by GPC Research showing the Liberals slightly ahead of the Conservatives in voter preference. Even the National Lampoon picked this one up and could not escape the lede:
"A Conservative lead in popular support seems to have evaporated this week, suggests a poll conducted after Paul Martin's national TV address and while the Liberal-NDP budget pact was being worked out."
GPC Research is a division of GPC International. GPC counts former federal Conservative cabinet minister Don Mazankowski, former federal Liberal cabinet minister Otto Lang and former Ontario liberal Premier David Peterson among their consultants. Wags will recall that during Lang's time in Ottawa, the government's twin engine prop aircraft became known as the Twin Otto in honour of the minister's penchant for flying around in it. This was before the arrival of Challengers.
Another poll conducted for the Globe and Mail and CTV by The Strategic Counsel shows that the Liberal Party enjoys the support of 30 percent of decided voters in Canada, followed by 28% for the Conservatives. The Strategic Counsel's researcher is Allan Gregg, once the leading researcher for the Progressive Conservative Party.
"And Mr. Harper's own standing with Canadians has not improved; 22 per cent said their view of the Conservative Leader has improved in the past year, while 21 per cent said it worsened. "He's stuck in the mud," Mr. Gregg said.
In Ontario, which has 106 of the 308 seats in the House of Commons, the Liberals have regained a substantial lead, with 38-per-cent support, compared with 30 per cent for the Conservatives. That is a dramatic reversal from 10 days ago, when the Conservatives led the Liberals 39 per cent to 33 per cent."
Wow! You really have to look at the dramatic turn around in opinion once people got past the initial shock from the Gomery testimony core dump and the subsequent media frenzy.
As a number of cooler heads noted, the Connies and Stephen Harper just couldn't make their vicious rhetoric take hold with the Canadian public focusing solely on Gomery. The Connie message track was just out of touch with a majority of Canadians. The dogs responded to the vicious sounding whistle. Most Canadians never heard it.
This points to the chronic Connie problem inherited from the righteous wonders of the Reform Party and Leader Stephen Harper - they are ideologues not pragmatists. They are elitists who want to tell us what to think, not democrats who believe in political dialogue.
And that's why they keep failing.
Look particularly at Ontario in the Gregg poll where the federal Liberals earned a massive turn-around in voter preference.
So much for the "media consultants" who thought the Prime Minister's communications strategy was all wrong. Quick, everyone call Allan Bonner and see what he says now.
So much for the media pile-on, talking about a government tottering on the verge of collapse. [Or my favourite, the poll showing the PM's speech was working but where the reporter said the Liberal Party had stalled. Talk about spin!]
So much for Stephen Harper.
and if Steve puts the whip out for Connies to vote against the budget, so much for Loyola and Norm. I'd like to see them wriggle out of the jam they are in.