Posted By BOB VAILLANCOURT, THE SUDBURY STAR

The Federal Liberal party has lost its way and is now allowing others to fish in its electoral pond, Senator Mike Duffy said this weekend in Sudbury.

Duffy, a former CTV news personality who was appointed to the Senate by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, was in town for a party fundraising dinner in support of the party’s Sudbury riding candidate Fred Slade.

Duffy said there is a growing segment of the Liberal party that would like to see leader Michael Ignatieff dumped.

A lot of people who are good Liberals and who support the leader because they are team players are now shaking their heads, he said.

“I kind of feel sorry for Mr. Ignatieff. I think he is a decent person, I think he is a sincere person, but the Liberals have to get their act together,” he said.

Bob Rae has a plan to grow the Liberal party by subsuming labour and Green Party support, while Ignatieff is trying to keep the party in the centre, but that is where the Conservatives are, said Duffy.

“The Conservative party, which I joined in January, has moved to the middle of the road and are fishing in Michael Ignatieff’s pond. The Conservatives now occupy the centre,” he said.

That leaves the Liberal party in a battle over where it can go, he said.

bvaillancourt@thesudburystar.com

Ignatieff Support Now Equal to Dion Days

Thursday, 08 October 2009 07:42

TORONTO – Stephen Harper’s Conservatives could win a majority if an election were held right now, having erased the Liberal Party’s lead among women, the university educated, and Canadians born abroad – demographic groups that were until recently firmly in the Liberals’ domain. “This is a dramatic setback for the Liberal Party, not confined to any specific group or region,” said EKOS President Frank Graves. “And it appears to be driven by a collapse in Michael Ignatieff’s popularity. Ignatieff has gone from a very positive approval rating when he assumed the leadership less than a year ago to a decisively negative one.”

Only one in five Canadians now approves of the way Mr. Ignatieff is doing his job, compared with about half of Canadians who disapprove.

“This dramatic fall from grace has dragged Liberal support down to the levels it endured under Ignatieff’s predecessor, Stéphane Dion,” said Graves.

Meanwhile, Mr. Harper’s negatives have softened significantly from earlier in the year. And approval for Mr. Harper is solid among Conservative supporters, while support for Mr. Ignatieff among Liberals is at best tepid.

Jack Layton, meanwhile has a mildly positive approval rating from Canadians – an interesting comment on his decision to support the government in recent confidence votes.

The poll, conducted for exclusive release by the CBC, has an extremely robust sample size – much larger than other recent polls – allowing for a detailed picture of patterns of party support.

The Liberals can no longer claim the lead in any region of the country. They are now neck-and-neck with the Tories in Quebec, well behind the Bloc Québécois. The party’s sagging fortunes there may well relate to the recent Coderre affair.

However, in the former Liberal bastion of Ontario, the Liberals now also trail the Conservatives by more than ten percentage points.

What had been bright spots for Mr. Ignatieff since he took over as leader late last year – women voters and the university educated – have tilted into the Conservative camp. Even Canadians born outside Canada – New Canadians, in other words – once bedrock for Liberal majorities in this country, and even a reliable demographic when the party was in opposition, are now almost evenly divided between the two leading parties.

“The only obvious barrier to a Conservative majority at the moment is the public’s antipathy to holding another election,” said Graves. “Indeed, it may be that the Liberals are suffering in part because they have branded themselves around holding an early election while the Conservatives have branded themselves around being stewards of the economy. And our research shows that the economy is the issue. It will be interesting to watch the impact of a newfound plausibility of a majority government on a minority weary but also election-wary electorate.”

TORONTO – Stephen Harper’s Conservatives could win a majority if an election were held right now, having erased the Liberal Party’s lead among women, the university educated, and Canadians born abroad – demographic groups that were until recently firmly in the Liberals’ domain. “This is a dramatic setback for the Liberal Party, not confined to any specific group or region,” said EKOS President Frank Graves. “And it appears to be driven by a collapse in Michael Ignatieff’s popularity. Ignatieff has gone from a very positive approval rating when he assumed the leadership less than a year ago to a decisively negative one.”

Only one in five Canadians now approves of the way Mr. Ignatieff is doing his job, compared with about half of Canadians who disapprove.

“This dramatic fall from grace has dragged Liberal support down to the levels it endured under Ignatieff’s predecessor, Stéphane Dion,” said Graves.

Meanwhile, Mr. Harper’s negatives have softened significantly from earlier in the year. And approval for Mr. Harper is solid among Conservative supporters, while support for Mr. Ignatieff among Liberals is at best tepid.

Jack Layton, meanwhile has a mildly positive approval rating from Canadians – an interesting comment on his decision to support the government in recent confidence votes.

The poll, conducted for exclusive release by the CBC, has an extremely robust sample size – much larger than other recent polls – allowing for a detailed picture of patterns of party support.

The Liberals can no longer claim the lead in any region of the country. They are now neck-and-neck with the Tories in Quebec, well behind the Bloc Québécois. The party’s sagging fortunes there may well relate to the recent Coderre affair.

However, in the former Liberal bastion of Ontario, the Liberals now also trail the Conservatives by more than ten percentage points.

What had been bright spots for Mr. Ignatieff since he took over as leader late last year – women voters and the university educated – have tilted into the Conservative camp. Even Canadians born outside Canada – New Canadians, in other words – once bedrock for Liberal majorities in this country, and even a reliable demographic when the party was in opposition, are now almost evenly divided between the two leading parties.

“The only obvious barrier to a Conservative majority at the moment is the public’s antipathy to holding another election,” said Graves. “Indeed, it may be that the Liberals are suffering in part because they have branded themselves around holding an early election while the Conservatives have branded themselves around being stewards of the economy. And our research shows that the economy is the issue. It will be interesting to watch the impact of a newfound plausibility of a majority government on a minority weary but also election-wary electorate.”