Conservatives have strong lead in poll

The poll results are not surprising given the performance of the Liberals. The Liberals of course will point to the polls and pat themselves on the back for being so responsible for not precipitating an election. I think that the Liberals will swallow anything from now until Spring so the Conservatives needn't worry. If the Liberals should actually decide they still have a principle or two then the Conservatives can blame them for the election. The next step is to sock it to those who are soft on terrorism now that they have established that the Liberals are not willing to confront the Conservatives on crime policy. The Liberals may make some noises on anti-terror legislation but to no avail. Liberal actions will speak louder than words. The right of a person to know and question the evidence against them will be sacrificed on the altar of national security. If the war on terrorism did not exist politicians would have to invent it.

Conservatives have strong lead in poll
Sat Oct 20, 2007 9:08 AM EDT


TORONTO (Reuters) - The federal Conservatives might have enough support to win a majority government, according to a poll released on Saturday, but the vast majority of Canadians do not want an election now.

The poll by Ipsos-Reid showed support for the Conservatives holding steady at 40 percent, the minimum level needed to have a chance of winning a majority of seats in Parliament.

Support for the opposition Liberals slipped to 27 percent from 28 percent.

The poll was conducted from October 16-18, including the period after the Conservatives promised a platform of measures that included tax cuts and a tough anti-crime bill in a policy document known as the Throne Speech.

The Conservatives have only a minority of seats in Parliament and defeat of their platform would have led to a new election. But Liberal leader Stephane Dion said he would not bring the government down over the issue.

"It appears that Stephane Dion was correct when he declared that Canadians do not want an election at this time," Ipsos-Reid said of its poll, conducted for Global TV and CanWest newspapers.

Sixty-eight percent of Canadians said an election should not be held before the spring because the government still had work to do, the survey of 1,000 voters showed.

The poll showed support for the left-wing New Democratic Party slipping to 14 percent from 16 percent, but edging up for the Green Party to 8 percent from 7 percent.

The separatist Bloc Quebecois, which campaigns only in French-speaking Quebec, had support from 9 percent of voters, up from 8 percent.

Ipsos-Reid considers its poll accurate to within 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.