NDP ahead of Conservatives

[steven lloyd]

Leftist Canadian party noses ahead of Conservatives
08/06/2012 9:31:13 AM

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada's leftist New Democrats, long in a distant third or fourth place in federal politics, have nosed ahead of the ruling Conservatives in some polls, including one released on Friday.

It is still more than three years until the next election, and the well-funded Conservatives have yet to bring out their heavy advertising artillery against the New Democratic Party (NDP), currently in second place in the House of Commons.

But the polls show that the New Democrats, who favor higher corporate taxation and want to slow Canada's oil sands production, at least have a good shot at forming the first-ever federal NDP-led government.

A Nanos poll on Friday had the NDP at 33.6 percent of decided voters and the Conservatives, led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, at 33.5 percent, with the more centrist Liberals at 24.9 percent.

"This is the first time in Nanos tracking history that the NDP have numerically surpassed the Conservatives, albeit by 0.1 percentage points," pollster Nik Nanos said.

A weighted average of several recent polls, compiled by Eric Grenier at www.threehundredeight.blogspot.com, has the NDP at 34.2 percent and the Conservatives at 33.9 percent.

NDP leader Thomas Mulcair made controversial remarks over the past several weeks saying that Canada was taking in too much money because of its oil sands production, and this was driving up the Canadian dollar and therefore hurting manufacturers.

He advocates making the oil companies pay for their carbon emissions and a tougher application of environmental laws.
"The research suggests that there is no significant negative blowback by Thomas Mulcair's comments on the oil sands," Nanos said.

Nanos surveyed 1,201 Canadians by telephone and found 1,006 committed voters. A sample of 1,006 is considered accurate to within 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

(Reporting by Randall Palmer; Editing by Eric Beech)

http://news.sympatico.ca/canada/leftist ... s/070d2399

:-k

[Fritzthecat]

I guess people are finally fed up with the right wing nutz?

[The Green Barbarian]

I guess people are finally fed up with the right wing nutz?

yeah and they prefer a Euro-trash left-wing nut whose main economic policy seems to center around killing one of our biggest revenue-generating exports and ending thousands of high-paying jobs, all in the name of some elusive "sustainability" concept that is obviously just another buzzword from the left for "yet another doomed-to-fail idiotic socialist experiment". Sorry, that dog don't hunt, just like polls 3 years before an election don't mean anything. Mulcair is having his 15 minutes of fame, and if he wants to go ahead with this "cap and trade" foolishness he'll soon find out that even in 2007 when it had a chance of being accepted by a fear-mongered public, he'll be heading down the same road of futility as Stephane Dion. Enjoy it will it lasts Mulcky. It won't last long.

[Corneliousrooster]

I don't think it has anything to do with Mulcair - it is Stephen Harper and the conservatives that deserve all the credit for their drop in the polls.

[jennylives]

I don't think it has anything to do with Mulcair - it is Stephen Harper and the conservatives that deserve all the credit for their drop in the polls.

I agree. The majority of people I talk with are not happy with him and want him out.

[Fritzthecat]

I agree. The majority of people I talk with are not happy with him and want him out.

This angers me: We just went through (at the time) a whole decade of the BC Liberals pulling the same thing Harper is now doing federally and people STILL insist on voting for these kinds of people. Do they have to take EVERYTHING away and force rioting in the streets before people wake the *bleep* up?

[Fritzthecat]

removed - Jennylives

[Urbane]

I agree. The majority of people I talk with are not happy with him and want him out.

Remember though that even majority governments aren't voted in by a majority of people. Usually not even by a majority of voters. And then once elected and decisions are made there is the potential to turn people off. In BC, for example, Adrian Dix is currently riding high in the polls but wait until he's in office and starts raising taxes etc. His popularity will plummet.

No question that the Harper government's popularity has suffered because of some self-inflicted wounds as well. But will Mulcair wear well? I think not. And since the next election isn't until October 19, 2015 I wouldn't read too much into the current polls.

[albertabound]

:sunshine: People are lazy {mostly quebec] they want everything handed to them on a plate, but who will pay for it, a typicall ndp statement. Their answer is the government, who is the government you left wing nut cases , we the people
have to pay for it. If you do not like what you live with in canada ,leave and move to quebec, everything is free, canada will pay for it. :bethecoffee:

[The Green Barbarian]

I agree. The majority of people I talk with are not happy with him and want him out.

who - Mulcair? Yeah, I could see that.

[steven lloyd]

Remember though that even majority governments aren't voted in by a majority of people. Usually not even by a majority of voters. And then once elected and decisions are made there is the potential to turn people off.

Good points. Likely this flux in the polls is more a mild statement in response to a perceived lack of transparency and accountability on the part of the Harper government. However, as you’ve noted, the only poll that counts is the one held on election day and as the electorate from this province have clearly demonstrated people can allow themselves to be screwed over quite severely before really taking any action that counts. Not that I think I’ll ever have to worry about what the Federal NDP would do if ever elected to actually run this country. It would be nice, though, to see a politician respond to negative feedback in a productive (as opposed to arrogant and defiant) manner. In Harper’s case we’ll see I guess.

[NAB]

At least, unlike our provincial government, our federal government stays on the job until it is done...

Excerpts from: http://www.castanet.net/edition/news-st ... .htm#76359

Opposition politicians throwing hundreds of amendments at the Conservatives' omnibus budget bill are set to find out which ones are going to stick.

What could be a marathon week in the House of Commons begins Monday with the Speaker expected to decide how over 1000 changes proposed to Bill C-38, the government's budget implementation bill, will be dealt with in the House.

The 400-plus pages of legislation amends some 70 laws, including the process for environmental assessment and the rules around Old Age Security and Employment Insurance.

But with a Conservative majority, the bill is set to pass, so all the Opposition parties have pulled procedural rabbits of their hats.

The New Democrats and the Liberals gave notice of over 1000 amendments seeking to delete various clauses of the bill. Technically, a vote is required on each one, which could keep the Commons sitting around the clock for days.

On Monday, the Liberals will try anew, asking for elements relating to fisheries, environmental assessment, EI and old age security removed and introduced as separate legislation.

Meanwhile, since neither the Bloc Quebecois nor the Green Party had the ability to propose changes at committee, they have put forward their own suggestions in the Commons.

The Bloc wants 22 changes, while the Green Party is proposing 320 amendments.


Conservative House Leader Peter Van Loan suggested the government may look at some of the proposed changes, but argued the lion's share are merely procedural games.

"It appears to me that the Opposition is simply looking to delay our important job creating measures," said Van Loan said.

"It's a foolish thing to do at a time when these are important economic measures and the global economy is facing very fragile circumstances."

To what extent the amendments will bog down the Commons is in the hands of Speaker Andrew Scheer.

Scheer, a Tory MP, has at his disposal a power granted in 2001.

That year, the governing Liberals invested the Speaker with the authority to refuse to allow votes on motions he deemed of a "repetitive, frivolous or vexatious nature or of a nature that would serve merely to prolong unnecessarily proceedings."

[D suzuki]

I don't think it has anything to do with Mulcair - it is Stephen Harper and the conservatives that deserve all the credit for their drop in the polls.

exactly i will take a left wing envro nut over someone who hires a person who thinks the world is only 4000 years old a humans walked with dinasuars

[The Green Barbarian]

exactly i will take a left wing envro nut over someone who hires a person who thinks the world is only 4000 years old a humans walked with dinasuars

and you have links to prove these allegations I assume. Yeah right. And of course you will take a left-wing enviro-nut, you don't care if that said nut does a Pierre Trudeau and nationalizes the oil sands, then shuts down a big chunk of production, all in the name of this nonsensical word he's invented called "sustainability" which is code for "I don't know what I am doing". You could care less about all of the families whose bread-winners are thrown out of work, or all of the billions of dollars that we'll now have to borrow instead of earning, to continue to fund our overly generous social safety net (which would no doubt increase exponentially if/when a left-wing nut took control). Why would you care? Money is made out of unicorn farts and fairy dust.

[The Green Barbarian]

exactly i will take a left wing envro nut over someone who hires a person who thinks the world is only 4000 years old a humans walked with dinasuars

yet another myth perpetuated by the uber-lefties - it really is sad when you have to resort to outright fibs like this - it just shows you have no legitimate complaints, when you have to make up crazy stuff in order to have anything bad to say.

That left-wing enviro nut, aka the Euro-trash Mulcair - wants to shut down a big chunk of the oil sands. You always say you are about jobs. So why are you in favour of killing thousands of jobs? How do you reconcile your whole "I want jobs for everyone" shtick with your support for someone who wants to end the livelihoods of thousands of Canadian families?