Monday August 23, 2021 | NATIONAL
by Mary P Brooke, Editor | Island Social Trends
The NDP have ‘shown improvement’ in the opinion of 1,692 Canadians this past week, according to an Angus Reid poll that was conducted during August 20 to 23.
That was in response to a question that asked: “Over the past few weeks, would you say your opinion of each of the following has improved, worsened or stayed the same?”
But that’s not the same as saying the person they would change their vote, or even what their vote is. And the source of the respondents should always be taken into account for any poll. Angus Reid opinion membership could be seen as leaning right.
Campaigns are getting attention:
Given that it’s still sort-of mid summer and people are still taking vacations or enjoying what’s left of seasonable weather, attention to the federal campaign does seem to be on people’s radar.
The jump for the NDP by 5% is a good sign that the NDP Leader’s tour is heading in the right direction under party leader Jagmeet Singh. Each day of the campaign Singh has been focussing on a different aspect of the ‘commitments’ in the NDP’s campaign document, and visiting communities across the country.
Meanwhile, the Liberal campaign under party leader Justin Trudeau elicited a 39% drop in assessing how the party did in recent weeks. It’s been a tough go for the Liberals who held minority government status in the House of Commons before the August 15 dissolution of the 43rd parliament.
Trudeau has been called selfish for calling an election (as the Liberals already had the confidence of the house), and worse — even irresponsible — for calling it during the pandemic. The sudden collapse of order in Afghanistan threw a wrench into the leader’s time in the past week.
The Conservatives under Erin O’Toole’s leadership lost nine percentage points in the Angus Reid survey. His party did come out with a campaign platform on Day 2 of the campaign, ahead of the survey period.
The Conservative party is tossing out goodies to people and businesses who can afford to take advantage of them. O’Toole is trying to keep all sides of the party membership happy as to his stand and the party’s stand on ‘red Tory’ (social) issues.
The Greens suffered quite a drop, probably mostly due to the dissarray of Party Leader Annamie Paul’s party management, and having lost one of the former Green MPs to the Liberals this summer.
Island focus:
Here on south Vancouver Island, NDP candidate Alistair MacGregor (who is seeking re-election for a third term in Cowichan-Malahat-Langford) posted his pleasure at the 5% increase for the NDP in the poll that was announced online this evening, saying: “One of these parties is not like the others.”
There are five NDP incumbents running again on Vancouver Island (including Randall Garrison in Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke and Laurel Collins in Victoria), and two Green Party incumbents (Elizabeth May in Saanich-Gulf Islands and Paul Manly in Nanaimo-Ladysmith).
More key findings:
The survey dug up these results as well:
- One-in-five women and three-in-10 men over age 55 say their opinion of Erin O’Toole has recently improved.
- Jagmeet Singh is viewed favourably by a majority of all age and gender groups other than men over age 54. Neither Trudeau nor O’Toole reach 50% among any group.
- A comfortable Liberal lead in Quebec has diminished after the first week of the campaign. The Liberals led the Bloc Quebecois – its key competitor in the province – by 16 points last week. This week the lead is just seven points.
===== RELATED:
Jagmeet: carrying the Jack Layton torch (August 22, 2021)
Singh: further inspiration to fight for justice after visiting Cowessess burial site (August 20, 2021)