The Conservative lead over the federal Liberals, which was as high as 15 per cent last October, has sunk to about 5 points, according to a new poll.
"At 33 points – a low not seen since the summer – a majority is a fantasy for the Conservatives for the time being," stated the Ekos release. "Indeed, they are now closer to sitting in opposition than they are to presiding over a majority."
The Ekos poll was conducted on January 4th and 5th, and is the first national survey to be release since Prime Minister Stephen Harper's decision to prorogue Parliament until after the 2010 Winter Games.
Two-thirds of Canadians who expressed a preference supported one of the opposition parties. The vote intention results are as follows:
- 33.1% Conservative Party
- 27.8% Liberal Party
- 16.0% New Democratic Party
- 13.4% Green Party
- 9.8% Bloc Quebecois
The Conservatives have lost support among Quebeckers, women and the university educated. Harper continues to enjoy strong support among uneducated males and senior citizens.
"There is no single issue that has dragged down Harper's Conservatives," EKOS President Frank Graves said in the release.
"Certainly the Afghan detainee story got huge play in the media in the weeks before the holidays, and that appeared to put downward pressure on the Tories. However, the decline seemed to have stopped as Parliament headed into recess," Graves continued.
"The government's decision to prorogue Parliament seems to have restarted the pattern of declining Conservative fortunes," he added.
Anti-prorogation rallies are planned for January 23 in at least 31 Canadian cities. And as of Thursday afternoon, more than 87,000 Facebook members had joined the one-week-old protest group, Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament.
The Grits do not appear to be gaining significantly at the Tories expense, however.
"It may be that voters are still punishing the Liberals for their election threat – and their failure to explain why an election was necessary," Graves said. "The NDP and the Greens, meanwhile, are both up since October, so they may be capturing some of the Tory defections."
New Democrats continue to out-poll the Liberals in Saskatchewan, Manitoba and British Columbia, while remaining neck-and-neck with the Grits in Atlantic Canada.
Green support rose to 13.4 per cent, possibly in reaction to the government's lack of action in Copenhagen.
Monte Paulsen reports for The Tyee.
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Luke
2 years ago
Green SURGE ...
The story by-line should also read: "Green SURGE".
Ekos was in the field polling for two days for its sample, but the second day of the field results showed a national surge to 19.8% for the Greens making the Greens Canada's third largest national party.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/pdf/0779-report_jan6_.pdf
Now if everyone would buy a backyard trash compactor, goes on a veggie diet, and eats granola bars, Canada would see its first Green national guvmint.
Dan the socialist
2 years ago
Decima- Harris has similar
Decima- Harris has similar numbers for the cons at 34%, Libs 28%, NDP 14% and Greens 13%..
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1715593220091217
DPL
2 years ago
The greens are where folks
The greens are where folks put their preferences between elections . Then the implode but get enough votes for some funding.
Van Isle
2 years ago
The Cons have a knack of
The Cons have a knack of shooting themselves in the foot. Ever since they won the election in Jan of '06 they have done it time and time again. Of course they blame other people like the Oppostion or the press.
Skywalker
2 years ago
Luke
You couldn't just face what the polls say about Harper's popularity, could you?
Frank
2 years ago
That's pretty funny
Well done Mr Harper, your proroguing ways even managed to pee off the Economist and the Calgary Herald. And I thought pigs would fly before the Herald would say anything negative about its favourite son.
As for the Greens, their sudden rise in the polls is kinda obvious isn't it? Canada took a lot of heat over its stance at Copenhagen from almost everyone on the planet not named Tzeporah. Those that are very frustrated with that stance are naturally going to be inclined to say they support the Greens.
Ed Seedhouse
2 years ago
I wonder how much of
I wonder how much of people's reactions are to sound of the word "prorogue" rather than their comprehension of it. I'm rather anti Harper myself and would certainly never vote Tory, but I'm cynical enough in my old age to suspect that the sound of the word, containing as it does the word "rogue" which means something bad, might have something to do with people's reactions here.
Calling Harper "that proroguer" makes it sound as if he has done something that deserves a term in the old jail cell, doesn't it?
Sask Resident
2 years ago
The Non-Surge
I can't see the support for the Greens under sea coasts Lizzie holding once people are in the polling booth. People like listening to her but I'm not sure they would want her to have any power.
Canadians seem more uncomfortable over Icky than Harper. But I hear that Icky had returned from his villa in France but has made any threats yet, for a nice change. I think Harper did the right thing but shouldn't have prorogued Parliament until around Feb. 1. After Copenhagen, you just knew that some fool politicians were going to try and make Canada look bad during the Olympics, even worse than Canada will look anyway. Better to keep them away from the media.
The NDP have now shown why they are the other national party. The Liberals are just a regional party based in Toronto.
dave49
2 years ago
Numbers game
So, Stephen Harper sings "with a Little Help from my Friends" and his rating go up 7% overnight. He prorogues Parliament for the second time and his rating goes down 5%.
If this measures what people think is important, something is wrong with this picture.