Compas Poll / Survey

The Canadian public is most definitely of two distinct minds about the federal Liberal party, according to the results of a nation-wide Ottawa Citizen/COMPAS poll conducted May 27th among a representative sample of n=407 adults. For the Liberals, the good news is that their party remains by far the favourite choice. If an election were held today, none of the opposition parties would reach even half the level of support for the Liberals, as shown in table 1, although there are hints in the data that Liberal support could be softening .

For the Prime Minister’s Office, especially good news comes from the fact that the Prime Minister outperforms his ministers, and performs especially well among Liberal voters. If Jean Chretien’s real battle is within his party, then his recent moves have been astute given the evidence from the Ottawa Citizen/COMPAS poll.

The bad news for the Liberals is that by overwhelming majorities Canadians take very hawkish positions about the ethics performance of Liberal ministers. Ministers get failing grades for three specific aspects of honesty—accepting gifts, favouring friends, and speaking honestly. Overwhelming majorities believe that Ministers Art Eggleton and Don Boudria should both have been dismissed from cabinet. An absolute majority also feels that Mr. Boudria should not have been appointed House Leader.