Month: April 2007

Polls: SES on voting intentions and best PM

With all the Vimy stuff, I’ve been involved in over the last few days, I’ve neglected the release of some new polling data from SES Research.

On Sunday, SES released their latest voting intentions survey. It’s a mixed bag for the two main parties. Depending on which slice of data you want to look at, the news is marginally good or marginally bad for both the Conservatives and the Liberals.

Here’s the big picture nationally

“For those parties you would consider voting for federally, could you please rank your top current local preferences?”

  1. Conservative – 36 % (up 3 percentage points since SES most recent poll on Feb. 8)
  2. Liberal – 33 % (no change since last poll)
  3. NDP – 16 % (-1)
  4. BQ – 10% (no change)
  5. Green – 6 % (-1)

For this poll, 1,000 Canadians were surveyed between March 31 and April 5. The pollster says the results are accurate to within 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

So, things are moving up for the Tories but, according to SES President Nik Nanos, “the Conservatives are still short of forming a majority government.”

Meanwhile, the Liberals are staying put and haven’t budged from where they were in the last federal election.  So some might say that, despite near universal poor reviews from the pundit class in Ottawa on his performance, Stephane Dion is not hurting his party. On the other hand, Dion doesn’t seem to be helping his party.

But Nanos says there is trouble for the Liberals in Quebec:

However, the federal budget, Quebec provincial election results and the new advertising scandal arrest has put downward pressure on Liberal support in Quebec. The Liberals have dropped nine points in Quebec in the past 60 days. Research conducted by SES has shown that in the past there is a direct relationship between federal Liberal support in Quebec and any new revelations regarding the sponsorship scandal. It is too early to tell whether the Liberal drop is short term or not.

Here’s the numbers SES has for Quebec only:

  1. BQ – 37 % (-2 percentage points)
  2. Conservatives – 28 % (+8)
  3. Liberal – 18% (-9)
  4. NDP – 13% (+5)
  5. Green – 4% (-2)

For this poll, 244 Quebecers were surveyed. The pollster says it is accurate to within 6.4 percentage points 19 times out of 20.

And finally, there’s some new data from SES today, which surveys Canadians as to their opinion of which federal leader would make the best Prime Minister. Here’s the results:

  1. Stephen Harper 42%
  2. Stephane Dion 17%
  3. Jack Layton 16%
  4. Gilles Duceppe 7%
  5. Elizabeth May 4%
  6. None of them 7%
  7. Unsure 6%

This poll was done between March 31 and April 5. One thousand Canadians were asked this “read and rotate” question — respondents are read a list of the leaders and asked to select one, and the order in which the respondent hears the choices is rotated — and the pollster says the results were accurate to within 3.1 percentage points 19 times out of 20.

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PM on Afghanistan

Last evening, the Prime Minister finished a busy day with a speech to a dinner of veterans. The speech was in Verlinghem, France, near the Belgian border. Joining the veterans at the dinner were several dignitaries. Here are the ones I spotted in the crowd: Former Governor General Adrienne Clarkson and her husband John Ralston Saul, General Rick Hillier, LGen. Andrew Leslie, Government House Leader Peter Van Loan, House of Commons Speaker Peter Milliken, Public Works Minister Michael Fortier, Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Rona Ambrose, Veterans Affairs Minister Greg Thompson Senator Joseph Day, Senator Norman Atkins, Senator Colin Kenny, Liberal Party Deputy Leader Michael Ignatieff, Conservative MP Rob Anders, Conservative MP Bev Shipley, NDP MP Joe Comartin, and Bloc Quebecois MP Roger Gaudet.

The Prime Minister was informed of the deaths of the six soldiers in Afghanistan minutes before he was to give the speech. He confirmed those deaths in his speech with the following remarks, added at the last minute:

Sadly, today has been a difficult day in Afghanistan. We’ve learned that an incident has claimed the lives of six Canadian soldiers and injured a number of others. Our hearts ache for them and their families. And I know as we gather here on Easter Sunday. Our thoughts and prayers are with them. Today’s events once more remind us of the sacrifices that our men and women in uniform continue to make to defend against those who threaten freedom, democracy and human rights.

Later in his speech, he came back to the theme of linking the sacrifices of 90 years ago to the Afghanistan mission:

New challenges face us today — global terrorism, rogue regimes, nuclear proliferation, threats as unpredictable for our generation as the two world wars were for those who had to confront them. We still live in a dangerous world. And, as Prime Minister, my thoughts these days are never far from Afghanistan where a new generation of Canadian soldiers carry Colonel McCrae’s torch.

….

For these men and women, the terrain of Kandahar province today looks as desolate and dangerous as Flanders Field did 90 years ago. But those who wear the Maple Leaf on their uniform move forward, against tyranny and fear with the same courage and determination that  you did in your time and that the heroes of Vimy Ridge did before you.

Easter Sunday in Vimy

We are outside the church of St. Martin-de-Vimy. The Prime Minister and his family have just arrived for Easter Sunday church service.

It is a cool misty morning but the sun is up and it is clear.

The Prime Minister was joined by about two dozen veterans and other dignitaries at the service. Among those in attendance at the church service were former Governor General Adrienne Clarkson and her husband John Ralston Saul;  Senator Colin Kenney, Senator Norman Atkins; Veterans Affairs Minister Greg Thompson; Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn; Speaker of the House Peter Milliken; and Liberal deputy leader Michael Ignatieff.

Vimy Stories: David McCarthy

When the Canadian National Vimy Memorial is rededicated on Monday, David McCarthy will have a special place of honour as the representative of Charlotte S. Wood who was Canada’s first Silver Cross Mother.  Charlotte lost five sons in the First World War and two others would be seriously injured. Here is the remarkable background on David McCarthy and his great-grandmother Charlotte Wood, provided to reporters by Veterans Affairs Canada:

“David McCarthy is the great-grandson of Charlotte Susan Fullman, and the grandson of Charlotte’s only daughter, Ellen McCarthy. David was born in 1942 and resides in Bury St. Edmunds, England, with his wife Carol and his two children. He is honoured to be invited to the 90th Anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge and the Dedication of the Restored Vimy Monument, representing his great-grandmother Charlotte. His family represents the selfless sacrifice made by so many of those from the noble generation who lived through and fought in the First World War. “It is very special to be able to pay my respects to my great-uncles who gave their lives.”

Charlotte, born in 1861, in Chatham, England, married Frederick Louis Wood when she was 27. Frederick had six young sons from a previous marriage, and together Frederick and Charlotte had an additional seven children: one girl, Ellen, and six boys. Frederick’s oldest son, Richard, died during a typhoid epidemic in May 1900, while serving with the British Army in South Africa. However, the sacrifices made by the Wood siblings in the name of the Commonwealth would not end with Richard’s untimely death.

Part of the Wood family moved to Edmonton in 1905. The four youngst Wood sons, Herbert, Harry, Percy, and Charles emigrated to Canada with Charlotte and Frederick. Sons Louis, Joseph, William, Arthur, Alfred, Frederick and John, along with daughter Ellen chose to stay in Britain.

In 1914, Charlotte’s sons in Britain enlisted in the army and navy, and her sons in Canada followed their footsteps. The two youngest, Percy and Charles, aged 15 and 13 respectively, were too young to serve in 1914 when the war broke out. But they signed up anyway the following Christmas. By the beginning of 1916, all 11 of the Wood sons had enlisted.

The First World War struck the Wood family quickly with 32–year-old Louis lost at sea when HMS Hogue was torpedoed in September 1914. During the next four years, Charlotte and Frederick suffered a series of devastating losses: Fred, killed on the Somme in France; Harry killed at age 18 at Gallipoli, Italy; Joseph, who survived Gallipoli and the Somme, only to perish in Passchendaele, Belgium; and Percy, not quite 18 when he was killed at Vimy. At least two other sons were seriously wounded but survived the war.

Charlotte was awarded the George V Jubilee Medal in 1935 and was the first recipient of the Memorial Cross, awarded to mothers and widows of Canadian soldiers who died on active duty or whose death was consequently attributed to such duty. On July 16, 1936, she took part in “The Vimy Pilgrammage” and was one of three mothers of war dead who met King Edward VIII. At Westminster Abbey in London, Charlotte placed a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on behalf of all of Canada’s bereaved mothers.

Charlotte died in Winnipeg’s Victoria Hospital on October 11, 1939 at the age of 78. Her daughter, Ellen, and just five of her 12 sons outlived her.”

 

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