Saudi spat may boost Liberals, but likely not for long: pollsters, strategists
Canada’s conflict with Saudi Arabia represents a “minor tremor” domestically, with the Liberals seeing positive feedback from voters, but that’s unlikely to have any long-term effect for the party at the polls, pollsters and politicos say. If anything, it underscores that appearing strong in international disputes wins support, but Canadians won’t remember or care about […]
Halifax policy convention Scheer’s time to focus on homegrown visability
A policy convention is something like a Seinfeldian Festivus, or a biennial airing of grievances. As former Conservative strategist Tim Powers told The Hill Times in today’s paper, it’s three days on the therapist’s couch—a massive counselling session to get everything out in the open. But there’s a reason most people don’t broadcast their own […]
Defunct industry group too heavy on advocacy, light on regulation: pollsters
Although a complete lack of oversight could pose problems for the polling industry, the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association (MRIA) served more to defend the industry to the public than it did to uphold its own standards, suggest some pollsters and a report by a panel commissioned to study polling failures during last year’s municipal […]
Dead heat in polls shows fragility of federal Liberals’ majority: pollsters
Fourteen months away from the next federal election, polls show the Liberals and Conservatives in a deadlock, and the Liberals have to hold onto their three-pronged coalition to win in 2019, pollsters say. A Nanos poll, released on Aug. 7, shows the Tories and Grits virtually tied, with the Liberals holding 36.9 per cent of […]
‘Someone took their eye off the ball’: pollsters plan pinch-hitter as industry association closes doors
The association charged with holding the country’s pollsters and market researchers to high standards of transparency and accountability didn’t live up to the same measure, say pollsters, who were left reeling when the oversight body abruptly shut its doors recently. Members of the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association (MRIA), who were given mere days notice […]
Polling headlines should reach beyond horse race figures, say pollsters eyeing 2019 election
Dig past the horserace questions, ignore probability projections, and pay for it: those are some of the suggestions pollsters have for the media covering polls before the next federal election. Last month’s Ontario election served as a lesson of sorts on the dangers of reading too much into so-called horse race polling. Vote preference polls […]
Could Justin Trudeau lose the next election?
TORONTO—Could Justin Trudeau lose the next election? Well, sure he could. In strictly existential terms, you are always facing political death. The distance from hero to zero is very slight. Ask Kathleen Wynne. After Trudeau won big in 2015—after he came from a remote and distant perch in the House of Commons, from third place, […]
Trudeau in the ‘penalty box,’ Conservatives top Liberals, poll suggests
The Liberals have fallen slightly behind the Conservatives, with 34 per cent of Canadians saying they would vote for the party, compared to 36 per cent who say they would vote for the Conservatives, though many still largely prefer Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to the opposition leaders, according to a new Campaign Research poll. “They’re placing him […]
Canadians conflicted on Indigenous issues and Trudeau’s handling of the file, poll shows
A new poll by the Angus Reid Institute outlines the complicated relationship Canada has with its Indigenous population, offering up thoughts on Indigenous status, whether or not the treaties have been properly honoured, and how the public feels about the residential school system. Fifty-three per cent of those who responded also noted that fundamentally “Canada […]
Kathleen Wynne made it all about Kathleen Wynne
TORONTO—Kathleen Wynne’s former cabinet colleague doesn’t mince words. “Kathleen is all about Kathleen,” the former colleague says. “That’s always her focus.” A former Liberal candidate, Jim Curran, was livid about Wynne’s ahistorical decision to concede defeat days before the vote, thereby consigning her candidates and caucus to political oblivion. Said Curran: “What Kathleen did to […]
