Compas Poll / Survey

The Alliance and Progressive Conservative parties are in a kind of Mexican stand-off with the Alliance at 12% and the Tories at 14%, as shown in table 1. Despite seasons of internal conflict, the Alliance party has not managed to disappear. Despite the recent party convention, which saw Stockwell Day replaced by Stephen Harper, the Alliance party has made few if any real gains.

Given the near parity of popular support for the two parties, it is not entirely surprising that the federal Alliance and Progressive Conservative parties are unable to reach an agreement about procedures for unification. Neither party has the electoral strength to dictate terms to the other.

The main beneficiary of the ongoing friction between the two rightwing parties appears to be the plague-on-all-your houses “don’t knows.” At 32%, the don’t knows account for one of the highest proportions recorded in 15 years of COMPAS election polls. A sizeable number of Canadians have chosen to wait-and-see. For their part, the Liberals continue to be relatively strong at 46%, as is the Bloc at 12%, while the NDP remains in the doldrums.