Our friends at Abacus Data are out with an interesting poll that takes a look at how Canadians feel about the economy and about the ability of federal political parties to manage current and future economic challenges. Bottom line, as I report in our papers today:
Abacus Data this morning released full data and tables associated with this poll but let me draw your attention to a new approach Abacus is taking here and, I’m told, will take in some future polls. You will note the sample size for this poll – close to 2,000 — which allows Abacus to break out some of its results by certain types of voters, namely (and I’m using Abacus’ nomenclature here):
- Partisans: Those who say they would not consider voting for any other party but the one they’ve declared for. This would be the “base” for each of the Conservatives, New Democrats and Liberals.
- Swing Voters: Voters who say their vote is up for grabs by anyone. Highly sought after, obviously, by all parties.
- Progressive Non-Partisans: Those who say they would not vote Conservative under any circumstances but could see themselves voting NDP or Liberal.
- Conservative Non-Partisans: Those who say they would never vote NDP under any circumstances but could see themselves voting Conservative or Liberal.
- Populists: Those who say they would never vote Liberal but could see themselves voting Conservative or NDP.
Most often, of course, polling firms break down a given sample by region or by gender and while those subdivisions are useful to help understand each party’s behaviour, this may be at least as and possibly more useful.
For example: We’ve seen the federal NDP recently frame any of their economic and fiscal pronouncements, Question Period lines, and so on around “affordability.” Presumably, “affordability” is a highly populist way of talking about the economy, even an extension of Jack Layton’s metaphor of the “kitchen table” around which working class families would gather to assess their place in the world and their governments interest in helping them secure their place in the world. This framing, presumably, gives them an angle into those Abacus would identify as “populist” CPC-NDP switchers.
To quote from the Abacus commentary:
The point of this exercise is to first demonstrate that voters can view multiple parties and party leaders as acceptable or even good economic managers. This has consequences for the role these opinions can play in affecting voter intention. If voters, for example, in the Progressive non-partisan group view both Trudeau and Mulcair as equally able to manage the economy, then vote choice may come down to another factor such as leadership attributes, candidate selection, or another prominent issue.
Second, by looking at the electorate not as a single uniform group but as one made up of different groups of voters with different intentions and preferences, it becomes clear that just because more people view Stephen Harper and the Conservatives as poor economic managers than the other parties does not mean they cannot be re-elected in 2015. However, the results demonstrate that they will need to work hard to convert almost all those who would consider voting Conservative to actually vote Conservative – especially when 12% of the electorate is open to voting either Conservative or Liberal.
Ask the veterans????????????
It is about time that Canadians began to recognize the hidden agenda to change the country, has destroyed those values we have always held as Canadians! The concern we have always had for each others’ welfare has been lost in profit-driven races by multinational oil companies and their exploitation of our natural resources. Stephen Harper is NOT there for us! His neocon idealism forfeits Canadian values for his commercial cronies. “The race to the bottom” has destroyed well-paid Canadian jobs and the middle class while multinational companies take exorbitant profits from Third World exploitation. We should all be ashamed of what Stephen Harper has done to our country; we should also ensure that his term ends abruptly in 2015! We cannot survive as a society on minimum wage and part-time jobs!
what form of communism would you prefer? if we are not competitive in the world we will not have any money to pursue the social programs that Canadians think are free. wealth is generated by producing things that others want or need not government.
Why do you old white guys see communism as the only alternative to the mess Stepehen Harper has created? Rather than export our natural resources as raw materials, they can be processed here, sold as value added goods, create Canadian jobs and bring in greater profit margins. Why hasn’t Stephen Harper realized there are alternatives to TCP? Why can’t old white guys see this? Are you all so short-sighted with no vision for the future? There has to be more than the next election, for a leader with real vision, which this guy is not!
How does Abacus factor in Bloc and Green voters who fall into neither Populist, Conservative, or Progressive?
There was a time when pollsters asked a question & then simply revealed the response they achieved. Now they feel a need to be expert analysts as well.
They need to go back to when they were silent & let the public decide what the results mean. We don’t need their usual political slant in telling us what they meant. We are capable of doing that ourselves!
There are already enough biased “reporters” twisting the facts & we don’t need pollsters doing the same thing!!!!
Liberal, N.D.P. and whatever. Their brand of socialism is no different than that of the Ontario Liberals. The Liberals have done great damage to Ontario. Ontario is now a welfare province because of Liberal mismanagement. Harper is still be best qualified to lead this country.