The latest polling done by Nanos has both good news and bad news for the Liberal Party. On the trustworthy scale, a whole 8% of Canadians cited Bob Rae as the political leader they trust the most, which has to be near or beneath Ignatieff's worst rating (Iggy was at 13% a month before the election). Do you trust Bob Rae? That is today's poll question. Despite the poor trust numbers, the Liberals had fallen below 15% in the last poll done before Bob Rae became the leader and now find themselves at 22% support (gains coming at the expense of the NDP). The Tories meanwhile are polling at 42%, which is above their May 2nd election performance. Boy, that whole appointing Senators controversy is really hammering Conservative support...
Those trust numbers are a really bad start if Bob intends to seek permanent leadership. It isn't like Bobby just came back to Canada after a lifetime abroad, many Canadians (especially in Ontario) already know who he is and what he purports to stand for. Yet the gap between the Liberals and NDP was 18% on May 30th, and is just under 6% on June 21st. Warning to Jack Layton, objects in rear view mirror may be closer than they appear.
Outside of Ontario, I suspect relatively few Canadians know anything about Bob Rae. That, as opposed to hostility toward him, probably explains those amusingly low numbers. (I'm not trying to defend him, just to point out that as far as I know he really doesn't have much of a national profile one way or the other.)
ReplyDeleteTime to move beyond polling numbers, in my mind. The election's over now. Issues of substance, not horse-racing numbers, should be what the media concentrates on now. Strong parties with good ideas should fare well in such a debate.
Parties that coast along by still claiming to be our "natural" government, on the other hand, won't gain anything. :-)
I voted no on the trust thingy but that isn't entirely true. I do trust Boob Rae!
ReplyDeleteI trust him to lie
I trust him to look out for himself
I trust him to do Power Corp's bidding
I trust him to be a two faced slimeball
need I go on?