Posted on 04/03/2006 10:39:15 AM PDT by fanfan
OTTAWA
Four out of five Canadians expect opposition parties to give Prime Minister Stephen Harper some breathing room over the next year to implement his Conservative agenda, a new poll shows.
The Ipsos Reid survey, conducted from March 28 to 30 for CanWest News Service and Global National, found little public appetite for an election.
Only six per cent of respondents wanted the new Conservative minority government to be defeated "as soon as possible," while 81 per cent said they wanted it to survive for at least a year.
This means Harper will have a "pretty strong hand" to deliver on his Top 5 priorities when the House of Commons opens for business this week, said Ipsos Reid president Darrell Bricker. "This doesn't mean that (the Conservatives) have carte blanche," Bricker said. "What it means is that the public is prepared to see them implement the agenda as they understand it."
The survey found 36 per cent felt the government should not be defeated, "until their term runs out in about four years from now," while 22 per cent were willing to give the Conservatives a two-year life span in power.
"There's nothing that appears to be fatal in terms of what (the Conservatives) are proposing to bring in," he said. "If the opposition decides they want to take the government down on these issues, they've got a lot of selling to do to Canadians."
Ten per cent said the government should be defeated within six months, while 23 per cent said it should survive for a year.
"The basic point here is that overall, people just want to get on with the process of government," Bricker said.
Meantime, a majority of Canadians said the government should be defeated if it doesn't keep its promises to clean up government, establish a patient wait times guarantee for health care, and crack down on crime. At the top of that list, 53 per cent of Canadians felt the government should be defeated if it doesn't adopt a new accountability act.
"These are good Tory issues, and the public wants to see them deliver on them," he said.
By contrast, 60 per cent said opposition parties should not bring down the government if it fails to deliver its promise to lower the GST, while 55 per cent said they were willing to forgive the Conservatives if they fail to deliver new family allowances for child care.
The survey of 1,000 people is considered to be accurate within 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
How interesting.
Canada has a moonbat hard-core of approximately 6%
;-)
I hope they're right. The leftists here slammed Bush before 2000 and never once let up.
Be Ever Vigilant!
It would be higher, but calling an election now would more likely result in a conservative majority rather than a liberal.
You too!
It sure is nice to know we have each other's backs for a change.
:-)
The first order of business should be to privatize the CBC and allow more competitors in. Otherwise the CBC which is wholly owned by liberals will sabotage the conservatives as certainly as night follows day.
Who knows what could be done with a majority?
#10 was to you too.
I know what you mean - our countries have been friends and allies too long to let brain dead politicians in both countries to interfere with that.
Exactly.
Thank you.
BTW, you have a wonderful home page.
Thanks, you're home page is great too, is that charming young lady; your daughter?
Thank you.
No, that is Stephen Harper and his daughter a few days before the election.
His daughter's name is Rachel.
He also has a son, Ben.
He walks them to school every morning, and takes his son to hockey practice several times a week.
The media was in an uproar a few weeks ago, when he took them to the movies. LOL!
That is about half the percentage of the population that think Elvis is still alive.
And slightly less than the percentage that think that the world is flat.
"The first order of business should be to privatize the CBC and allow more competitors in."
More competitors for what? Besides CBC, Canada wide there are the CTV and CanWest/Global television networks, plus a number of regional players. There are a plethora of players in the radio business. There is no government-controlled newspaper, although some of the newspaper chain's owners toe the Liberal party line pretty closely.
Sorry - I just saw this young pretty child giving the "thumbs up" and didn't look any further.
I recognize Harper now and all I needed to do was read the caption under the pic.
My bad! ;)
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