good going, reformatories

[piranha]

the campaign has barely started and already we have a pile of gaffes:

- harper threatened to boycott the leaders debate if green party leader elizabeth may was allowed to participate, then flip-flopped after public outrage.

- harper had to apologize for a sophomoric website ad showing a bird pooping on liberal leader stephane dion.

- the conservatives had to admit that a halifax candidate resigned after it was learned she had a criminal record.

- the conservative party had to suspend communications director ryan sparrow over a partisan snipe at a dead soldier's father.

- the conservative campaign violated copyright by not seeking permission to use footage from the TVO network for the fashioning of attack ads (which they would not have gotten).

keep at it. 27% of voters undecided in the latest nanos poll.

Comments

[springheel-jack.livejournal.com]

27% undecided about Harper. Haha. I mean, we all know Canada is better than the US, but a figure like that doesn't seem to me to justify the widespread snootiness up there about the intelligence of voters down here.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Relative intelligence, not absolute. It's not that we don't make the occasion bad choices, just so many of them as the US does. Also, we'll know the results of the election within hours where as it's perfectly possible for the US to be unsure what the outcome of their election was for quite some time.

We have some truly awful politicians up here but for some reason the worst of them gravitate towards municipal politics. See, for example, Mel Lastman or wossname from London.

27% undecided

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

remember that 27% undecided covers a lot more ground here, because voters have more choices. that number includes a lot of people who'd never ever vote for the conservative party, but might vote strategically different from their usual choice if they're worried the conservatives might win a majority otherwise. they're in "wait and see" mode. i think it's pretty clear that harper is tremendously worried about that, which is why he totally downplayed the possibility.

Our first set of CPAC-Nanos nightly tracking indicates the Conservatives have entered the campaign with a five point lead over the Liberals among decided voters (CP 37%, Lib 32%, NDP 13%, BQ 9% GP 9%). Notably, the Conservatives are showing strength in central Canada where they are statistically tied with the Liberals in Ontario (Lib 41%, CP 39%) and close on the heels of the Bloc in Quebec (BQ 35%, CP 32%).

but speaking of the intelligence of canadian voters, this bit flabbergasts me somewhat:

Asked which of the five party leaders would make the best Prime Minister, Stephen Harper enters the campaign with a solid 23 point lead over second place Jack Layton (Best PM - Harper 38%, Layton 15%, Dion 14%, May 5%, Duceppe 3%, None 8% and undecided 19%).