Wednesday, October 21, 2020

An Election?

By this evening, we'll know whether we're headed into a federal election. Bruce Anderson and David Coletto at Abacus Data have surveyed Canadians on the prospect of an election:

About a third of those surveyed say they have been following this situation very or pretty closely. One in five Canadians (20%) hadn’t heard of it. The rest had only a vague recollection. Compared to our norms this indicates a relatively low level of public engagement so far.

Conservative supporters are slightly more likely to be following the events closely, but about a third of all four major party supporters say they are following the events at least pretty closely.

A majority (55%) of those surveyed would prefer to see the vote to create the committee passed and an election triggered. Just under half (45%) would prefer MPs act to prevent an election.

Conservative voters are broadly in favour (76%) of triggering the election, although 1 in 4 (24%) of them do not want this outcome.

Just over a third of Liberal supporters prefer to see an election, but 62% would prefer to avoid one at this time. For NDP leader Jagmeet Singh his voters are roughly evenly split with 55% preferring to avoid an election while 45% willing to go to the polls.

It appears that Singh has his ear to the ground and will vote against the Conservative motion. The motion itself should come as no surprise. The Conservatives have been itching to bring Trudeau down since he became prime minister. M. Blanchet also has been itching for an election.

I suspect that the NDP's coffers need some time to be replenished. Political self-interest is driving the decision.

We await the future.

Image: Port Credit BIA

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

The opposition could have brought down the government after the throne speech was read less than a month ago. I don't see how the prospects of any of the parties have changed since then. This is just more Con Kabuki.

Cap

Owen Gray said...

I continue to be amazed by how little the Harperites have learned in defeat, Cap.

the salamander said...

.. poilievre acted like a petulant child yesterday
.. Singh hammered on 'let me be clear' and waffled endlessly
I wonder what the 'order of voting' will be..
Must ask Ms Kady O'Malley - our procedural guru

My bet is Liberals go first
Conservatives abstain under protest
NDP same..
at that point Bloc is irrelevant
Green the same

'Honour' has been upheld with honour.. hmm

Owen Gray said...

That would be an interesting scenario, sal. The Conservatives abstaining on their own motion . . . Stranger things have happened.

Anonymous said...

CBC's reporting that the NDP has already caved. "We are voting for Canadians. We are voting against an election," said Singh. Can't say I'm surprised.

Cap

Owen Gray said...

Neither am I, Cap.

Trailblazer said...

Politicians of all stripes are digging up graves to find suitable disagreements with the opposition just to keep themselves relevant.

The age of Covid has made socialists out of all parties the difference being where does the socialism go?
We live in an age of the Pirates of the Caribbean where up is down and down is up!


TB


Owen Gray said...

It's an entirely changed world, TB. Who knows how -- and when -- this will end?