Eight months and one election campaign later, the panel has an unchanging view that a majority Harper government would out perform a majority Dion government.

Looking to the future, and amidst a potential economic crisis, the COMPAS business panel anticipates that a majority Harper government would perform well while a Dion majority government would perform poorly. Harper earns an overall, expected performance score of 69% on a 100 point scale. This is up two percentage points since February. Although Stéphane Dion’s expected performance score is up three percentage points since February, his potential majority government is still given a failing grade, 45%.

With the exception of policy areas such as keeping Quebec in Canada, health and the environment where they are roughly level, the panel forecasts the performance of a Harper-led majority government to be substantially better than a majority government led by Dion.

On the key matter of "managing the economy if the U.S. crisis persists and deepens," 69% anticipate that a Harper majority government would outperform a Dion majority government while 20% take the opposite view, that a Dion majority government would perform better than a Harper majority government.

These are the key findings from this past week’s Internet survey of CEOs and business leaders on the COMPAS panel. The weekly business survey is undertaken for Canadian Business magazine under sponsorship of BDO Dunwoody LLP.