Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Decima poll: Liberals ahead of Conservatives

Finally. Good news at last. A Decima poll released today shows the Liberals have 33% of national support, giving them a narrow lead over the Tories at 31%. This is the first time in a year (since before the election) that the Liberals have been ahead -- all that without a leader. Doesn't say much for Harper, does it?

It's not too hard to see why the tories are losing ground. The Afghan war, not popular to start with, is claiming the lives of more Canadian troops each month. Harper's friendly relationship with George W (he's applying for the postion as Georgie's 2nd poodle) is distasteful, to say the least, to most Canadians. Ominously, Harper's begun placating his social conservative base by needlessly re-opening the same sex marriage issue, and cutting Liberal programs like Status of Women. Harper's own creepy religiosity is showing, with this "god bless Canada" bullshit at the end of his speeches, and the way he allows religious whackjobs to have such influence on his government that they can torpedo any MP "they" don't approve of.

Harper seems to have forgotten that even though he won the last election, 2/3 of the country voted for someone other than him. Over 60% opted for left or left-of-center parties. The religious nuts Harper panders to are just a small group among the small 31% of conservative support. The unintended consequence of moving the party even further to the right will be a mass exodus of moderates who may have given the Tories a chance out of "Liberal fatigue", but who are obviously already seeing the error of their ways. Yes, keep up the good work, Steve, and keep perfecting those poodle skills.