We'll start with a Nanos poll from Ontario, conducted at the end of January and the beginning of February. It shows that the Progressive Conservatives hold a narrow lead over the governing Liberals.
Not much has changed. The Progressive Conservatives now hold the lead, and have gained five points. They stand at 43%, followed by the Liberals at 39%, down two points. The New Democrats are unchanged at 13%, while the Greens have dropped three points to 5%.
This telephone survey has a margin of error of +/- 4.4%, 19 times out of 20. Considering the narrow shifts, only the Progressive Conservative gain seems to be statistically significant. But Ipsos-Reid's last poll in January showed a similar gap between the two main parties.
That is, apparently, not a huge problem for Ontarians. Asked whether the leaders would have a positive or negative impact on their local voting intentions, respondents said that Hudak had a more positive impact (36.9%) than a negative one (12.7%). This contrasts with Dalton McGuinty's 26.8% positive to 33.3% negative score.
Andrea Horwath of the NDP has a positive net effect, with 24.1% saying she had a positive impact and 11.4% saying she had a negative impact.
As to who would make the best premier, Tim Hudak tops the chart with 32.3%, followed by McGuinty at 23.4% and Horwath at 9.2%. "None of the above" is in the race as well, at 11.5%.
The race is also surprisingly close in Alberta, at least compared to the province's homogeneous political history. An Environics poll conducted at the end of January, in the midst of Premier Ed Stelmach's resignation announcement, shows that the Progressive Conservatives still hold the advantage in the province, but are being closely trailed by the right-wing Wildrose Alliance.
The New Democrats are down three points to 10%, while the Others are at 4%. How much of that vote is occupied by the centrist Alberta Party is, unfortunately, unknown.
This telephone survey has a margin of error of +/- 3.1%, 19 times out of 20.
The Progressive Conservatives are leading in every part of the province, with 36% (+4 from November) in Edmonton, 34% (-2) in Calgary, and 43% (+10) in the rest of Alberta.
In Edmonton, the race is between the PCs and the Liberals, who are at 27%. The Wildrose Alliance has dropped seven points in the capital, and are third with 18%.
In Calgary, however, the Wildrose Alliance is not far behind the PCs with 31%, while the Liberals stand at 24%.
And in the rest of Alberta, the Wildrose Alliance trails the PCs with 29%, with the Liberals in third at 15%.
The Liberals would win six of their seats in Calgary and five in Edmonton, while the NDP would win all four of their seats in Edmonton.
Next, we will take a look at Quebec, where Léger Marketing has been furiously polling. The firm has been conducting two sets of polls, one for Le Devoir and the Montreal Gazette, and the other for the QMI Agency. As the latter set of polls are focused on the emergence of a political movement led by François Legault, and is less detailed, it makes more sense to compare this latest Léger poll to the last poll they conducted for Quebecor.
The ADQ is steady at 15% while Québec Solidaire has gained three points. They now stand at 11% in Quebec.
A random sample of 1,006 people would have a margin of error of +/- 3.1%, 19 times out of 20. This makes the shifts in this poll relatively benign.
The PQ leads among francophones with 41%, followed by the Liberals at 20% and the ADQ at 14%. Among non-francophones, the Liberals dominate with 64%. The ADQ is next with 13% while the Greens stand at 10% among this demographic.
But it is on the question of Legault's new movement that this poll is interesting. Contrary to the last time Léger polled, Legault's movement has not been called "centre-droite" in their questioning. This is good, because Legault has refused to pigeon-hole himself but has called his movement "gauche-efficace", or an effective left.
Fully 30% of Quebecers are prepared to vote for his phantom party. The PQ would be reduced to 24%, tied with the Liberals, while the ADQ would drop to only 9%. No wonder that Gérard Deltell is openly talking about an alliance with Legault.
Though the projection model is not designed for the inclusion of a completely new party, a crude projection would give Legault 63 seats, a majority of one. The PQ would win 34 seats and the Liberals 25, while Québec Solidaire would win three seats.
Of course, Legault would have to find 62 people to sit with him. Who would these people be? How would Legault run a campaign with a bunch of political novices? Who knows.
Nevertheless, Quebecers seem open to Legault, with 47% saying he should launch a party. Another 28% said he shouldn't, and 25% said they didn't know.
What's interesting is that when asked whether they agreed with his positions, almost half (46%) said they didn't know, while 39% said that they did agree with him. Apparently, Quebecers just want another option, whatever it is. Without crosstabs we don't know, however, whether that 46% of people who don't know Legault's position were drawn from the 53% of people who said that Legault shouldn't launch his party or who had no opinion.
In any case, it is pretty clear that Quebecers are open to something different. Once that "something different" becomes "something real", however, I suspect voting intentions will shift once again.
Now to the provincial polling trend update. This chart shows the averages of all of the provincial polling results released each month, with polls that had field dates that straddled two months being part of the average for both those months. Months without any polls are considered to have the same levels of support for each party as the last month in which there was a poll. This gives us some straight lines that only shift once new polls appear.
Green = Wildrose Alliance (Alberta)
Dark Green = Saskatchewan Party (Saskatchewan)
Light Green = Greens (Saskatchewan)
Dark Blue = Parti Québécois (Quebec)
Light Blue = Action Démocratique du Québec (Quebec)
Orange = Québec Solidaire (Quebec)
Your ADQ colours are screwed up.
ReplyDeleteI use a light blue in the polling trend graph to differentiate them from the PQ, but in the report on the Léger poll I use a darker blue that is more in line with the colours they use.
ReplyDeleteLook for things to change in La Belle Province. Of course, I think you know that already.
ReplyDeleteI've read Legault's manifesto. Below is the link. Sorry, none available in English:
http://www.coalitionavenir.org/files/Version%20finale%20texte%2021-02-2011-1.pdf
However, here's the site, translated by google:
http://www.coalitionavenir.org/resume-du-texte-principal-de-la-coalition.php
I don't find anything to write home about. No real far right winged things to scare Quebecers. Also, nothing to really differentiate themselves from the old Quebec Liberal Party.
Right now, they may be ahead as a "mythical" party, as a) it's a novelty and b) it's abstract; not real. If it did become a party, it would be interesting to see how there numbers would come up.
Also, what will be interesting coming this spring is Pauline Marois's leadership vote amongst PQ delegates. There are many within the party, including elders like Jacques Parizeau and Bernard Landry who have little confidence she can sell sovereignty or lead the party effectively. Can she get that magic 76% come April 15? IMO, highly unlikely. Then she would have no choice, but to resign. Then who leads? Well, you've probably heard that Gilles Duceppe would likely step down as leader of the Bloc to throw his hat in the ring. Also, there are two other possibilities inside the PQ: ex-RadCan personality, Bernard Drainville and another language purist and former actor, Pierre Curzi. Whomever the leader of the PQ would be could well change projections.
Also, I predict Jean Charest will end up resigning quietly sooner rather than later.
As for Legault, it's a bad sign that he can't get the big names like Lucien Bouchard to even endorse his movement. Or even recruit such people like Dr. Philippe Couillard and the fact that Joseph Facal walked out on the whole thing early.
It's interesting that you have an increased projection, however slight, for the Quebec Solidaire.
No, in the graph you have them orange but in the seat count you have them blue. I should have explained.
ReplyDeleteProgressive Tory,
ReplyDeleteYou're right, I will fix it. Thanks.
I'm calling it now. The next Alberta election will produce a majority government.
ReplyDeleteTheir 28th consecutive majority government.
By the way, I was just polled (federal) by Angus Reid, so they'll probably have something coming out in the next week.
ReplyDeleteEric,
ReplyDeleteI have to ask, the polling numbers for the Ontario Tories and Liberals are not all that different from the polling numbers for the Federal Tories and Liberals in Ontario, if anything the provincial Liberals are doing a bit better, and yet the performance of the Ontario Tories are is significantly better than their federal cousins (a full 10 seats). For those from outside the province, the federal and provincial ridings are the same in Ontario.
I wonder if you had any thoughts on why that might be. Is it the weakness of the NDP that's putting the Ontario Tories over the top - (entirely possible if people are only looking for an alternative to the Liberals, though that should be a warning sign to the "unite the left" crew)? Is it that the slight increase in the absolute support for the Tories pushes them over the top(notwithstanding the closer gap with the Liberals)? Or may it's just that the Federal and provincial tories have different, but overlapping, bases.
I just wondered if you had any ingsight on the phenomenon.
"I'm calling it now. The next Alberta election will produce a majority government.
ReplyDeleteTheir 28th consecutive majority government."
Yeah, but at least they change the party name every couple of decades. For the sake of keeping up appearances.
Carl,
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure. I think you are probably right that the parties have overlapping but not equal bases. But then there are also the factors of incumbency and the history of each individual riding.
The ridings aren't exactly the same - there are now 107 provincial ridings whereas there are only 106 federal ridings in the province. That wouldn't account for a huge amount of difference, though.
Just because someone voted for the PCs in Ontario doesn't mean they will vote for the Conservatives, same goes for the Liberals.
ReplyDelete"Just because someone voted for the PCs ... "
ReplyDeleteYeah but when it comes to Ontario its probably like 98% of people.
Legault gives the only "interesting" changes to those polls.
ReplyDeleteVive le change !!
What I want to know is how they reweighed the None/DN/Refuse so that the overall ADQ number is higher than the Francophone and non-Francophone numbers.
ReplyDelete"Yeah, but at least they change the party name every couple of decades. For the sake of keeping up appearances."
ReplyDeleteTo be fair, the 1935 election was a genuine change in government. There they threw out the immoral philanderers who didn't understand economics, and replaced them with religious zealots who didn't understand economics.
I wonder what the impact of resource booms are? My theory is that it would greatly help the governing party.
ReplyDeleteThe NF conservatives are doing extremely well (and that is where the resource boom is the biggest - especially compared to the transformation from being a poor province), the SK party is doing great, though in MB the NDP isn't doing so well and in Alberta the right is only doing well if you add the two parties together.
I also wonder if Quebec Solidaire will get any coattails effect from the NDP victory. You'd think at least that the PQ's support would drop like a stone, and someone would have to go up.