Tories could capitalize on soft Liberal vote: poll
Updated Mon. Aug. 27 2007 11:07 PM ET
CTV.ca News Staff
Support for the Conservatives and Liberals remained stalled over the summer with the parties neck-and-neck heading into the fall Parliamentary session, according to a new poll by the Strategic Counsel.
But the survey also found Liberal voters are less committed to their party than Conservative supporters -- an opportunity that the Tories could exploit in an election scenario.
Among Tories -- by a 2:1 margin -- voters are less likely to be thinking about switching their support, the poll found. The Strategic Counsel conducted polling between August 9-12 for CTV and The Globe and Mail.
"Soft Tory voters susceptible to leaving and voting Liberal are firmly entrenched and highly committed at this point ... they like what the government has done," Tim Woolstencroft, managing partner with The Strategic Counsel, told CTV.ca.
In contrast, Liberal voters are evenly split about whether they intend to switch their vote.
The poll also suggests that Conservative support is less fluid than that of the Liberals. Fifty-five per cent of those who declared themselves Liberal said they would consider switching parties – far more than the 35 per cent of Conservatives who say they could be persuaded to do so.
And most of those Liberals who say they might vote for another party list the Conservatives, not the NDP, as their second choice. That's a reversal from the period before the 2006 election.
OTTAWA — Canadians have mixed feelings about their reserved and occasionally aloof Prime Minister even as they grow more comfortable with the direction he is taking the country and as support for his party solidifies.
A poll conducted for The Globe and Mail and CTV by the Strategic Counsel shows the Conservatives and the Liberals deadlocked, with each being named as the first choice of 33 per cent of respondents.
But the close race, and Stephen Harper's apparent inability to break through to majority territory, does not mean most Canadians are dissatisfied with the way Canada is being run.
When asked if the country is on the right track, 57 per cent said yes. That's down four percentage points from last year at this time, but up more than 10 points since the final days of the Liberals in early 2006.
The poll also suggests that Conservative support is less fluid than that of the Liberals. Fifty-five per cent of those who declared themselves Liberal said they would consider switching parties – far more than the 35 per cent of Conservatives who say they could be persuaded to do so.
And most of those Liberals who say they might vote for another party list the Conservatives, not the NDP, as their second choice. That's a reversal from the period before the 2006 election.
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