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Canadian PM Harper has higher approval rating then Ignatieff

by albertacowpoke | August 13, 2009 at 05:56 am

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Prime Minister Harper has led a minority government for close to two and a half years. In an election last year he was able to increase the number of seats for his minority government, but not the majority government he was hoping for.

The last election caused the then Liberal Party leader, Stephan Dion, to resign. Michael Igantieff won the contest for Leader, when his contender Bob Rae pulled out of the race. Igantieff initially enjoyed popularity, but as of late that support, according to polls has been lost.

Mr. Harper has pulled a few stunts, that both cost him a majority government, i.e. stripping funds from culture and arts. He miscalculated the effect that would have on Quebec, where he lost support.

Late last fall the opposition parties attempted to form a coalition after Mr. Harper slipped the cancellation of public election funds into his budget. Each political party is allocated public funds based on the number of votes they receive. Mr. Harper was able to sneak out of this crisis by convincing the Governor General to parogue parliament.

Parliament resumes the next session this fall and Canada is faced, once again, with a possible defeat of the government in a non-confidence motion and a possible election.

The BLOC Quebecois, which holds the balance of power, has already indicated a readiness to defeat the government. The NDP, no doubt, will also support this. The question is what will Mr. Ignatieff and his Liberals do? No doubt, polls will be very important for the Liberals to make a decision.

An EKOS poll, commissioed by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation indicates that Prime Ministers Harper has a higher approval rating than his contenders. He also has the highest disapproval rating among the three National Leaders.

Harpers disapproval ratings have actually declined since January, while Ignatieff's have increased.

The poll found that 36% of Canadians approved of Harpers' job performance, Jack Layton (NDP) came second with 34% and Michael Ignatieff came in at 29%. When it comes to disapproval ratings; however, Harper came in at 47%, Ignatieff at 38%, and Jack Layton at 33%. The net postive scores are worse for Harper at -11, compared to Ignatieff at -9.

Whether or not the Government will be defeated this fall is in the hands of Michael Ignatieff and his Liberal Party. In view of the recent trends in polls, will they have the courage to defeat the Conservative Government?

While Stephen Harper scores a higher job approval rating than his political rival, Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff, the prime minister also has the highest disapproval rating among three national leaders, according to a new poll.

Harper’s disapproval ratings, however, have slowly declined since January, while Ignatieff’s have shot up.

The EKOS poll, commissioned by the CBC and released Thursday, asked Canadians if they approve or disapprove of the way Harper, Ignatieff and NDP Leader Jack Layton is handling his job.

Harper received a 36 per cent approval rating, followed by Layton (34 per cent) and Ignatieff (29 per cent). Conversely, 47 per cent said they disapprove of Harper’s job performance, with Ignatieff getting a 38 per cent disapproval rating and Layton 33 per cent.

That means the net positive scores are worse for Harper (-11) than for Ignatieff (-9).

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eastvanray

at 09:59 on August 13th, 2009

Typical CBC. No one in polling or political consulting uses "net positive scores" for anything because that stat is virtually meaningless. The important number is how many people will vote for you not how many people will not. As long as a party deliveres a plurality of seats how the rest of the voters cast their ballots is completely irrelevent to planning election strategy. A high negative rating may be troubling to some politicians egos but that is about all.