If Canada had direct election of its national executive, the NDP might be in good shape. But the Liberals would be in a lot of trouble. Well, the Liberals are in a lot of trouble anyway.
From CBC:
NDP Leader Jack Layton also placed high on the [Harris-Decima] survey with a 52 per cent approval rating, followed by Conservative Leader Stephen Harper at 47 per cent.
Green Leader Elizabeth May received an approval rating of 41 per cent, while Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion improved slightly with a 35 per cent positive rating, according to the survey.
The latest party-preference survey is a little different:
The four-day Canadian Press Harris-Decima rolling survey, in partnership with the CBC, gives the Tories 36 per cent of national support, down two percentage points from the previous day’s figure.
The Liberals follow with 27 per cent support, down a single point from the previous day, the survey result suggests.
The poll puts the NDP at 16 per cent and the Green party at 11, both up a point, while the Bloc remained at eight per cent support.
Actually, Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe had the highest favorability rating among the party leaders (53%), but I am reasonably certain that even if the system were presidential, there’s not much chance that the leader of the Quebec Bloc would find himself President of Canada.
Canada’s federal parliamentary election is 14 October. And, of course, just as there is not a national executive election, there is not a national party election, either. The outcome–which seems to mainly hinge on whether the Conservatives end up with a majority, an enhanced plurality, or about where they are now–depends on the individual races in a series of swing ridings. Some indications suggest that the Conservative lead in some of these districts–mainly Tory-Lib contests in B.C. and Ontario and Tory-BQ contests in Quebec–may be slipping.
Perhaps “large, influential chunks of the electorate”–meaning those folks fortunate enough to live in “battleground ridings”–may be responding to Dion’s campaign–especially his carbon tax proposal–after all. Or maybe they just “are determined to keep the political complexion of the new Parliament as mixed as possible.”
Ah, yes, parliamentary government under FPTP elections in a multiparty system…
Articles about the poll don’t seem to mention whether the numbers for Duceppe reflect all of Canada or only Québec. With those numbers, I suspect they’re only asking Québecois voters—in which case it’s not really valid to compare his results to the other leaders. So far it does look like the Bloc is campaigning well, though.
Seed planted by Vasi — 18 September 2008 @ 17:31
That would make more sense, Vasi. I can’t imagine why non-Quebec voters would be so favorable. But the write-up implied all the assessments were national (as it reported the BQ vote only as a national percentage).
So, I would mark it down as ambiguous, pending looking at the actual poll report.
Seed planted by MSS — 18 September 2008 @ 18:38