Tories attack Trudeau

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Graham Hughes / The Canadian Press Justin Trudeau�s team called the Tories� attack a smear campaign. (CP)

OTTAWA, Ont. -- The Conservatives have launched their first concerted attack on Justin Trudeau -- and a new poll may explain why.

The Canadian Press Harris-Decima survey suggests the Liberal leadership front-runner's popularity is not the fleeting celebrity phenomenon the skeptics had assumed.

It's actually increasing and has the potential to siphon off votes from all parties, including the Tories.

The poll was released Thursday just as the Conservatives pounced on a two-year-old television interview to accuse Trudeau of being anti-Alberta.

Forty-two per cent of respondents said they'd be certain or likely to vote Liberal in the next election if Trudeau was at the helm -- enough to form a comfortable Liberal majority government.

That's up from 36 per cent in September and 33 per cent in June.

The poll suggests Trudeau's appeal is strongest in Atlantic Canada, where 60 per cent said they'd vote Liberal under his leadership, Quebec (48 per cent), British Columbia (43 per cent) and Ontario (41 per cent).

But the party's fortunes would improve markedly even in the Conservative stronghold of Alberta (30 per cent) and Manitoba and Saskatchewan (32 per cent).

Trudeau's appeal was consistent across urban and rural areas and among voters of all age groups.

A Trudeau-led Liberal party would bleed support from all rival parties, according to the poll. Forty-eight per cent of current New Democrat supporters said they'd vote Liberal with Trudeau at the helm, 44 per cent of Greens, 21 per cent of Conservatives and 22 per cent of Bloc Quebecois supporters.

The telephone poll of just over 1,000 Canadians was conducted Nov. 15-19 and is considered accurate within plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, 19 times in 20.

The survey was conducted before damaging quotes from Trudeau's 2010 television interview surfaced Thursday in a Sun Media story. Within seconds, Tory MPs were fist-bumping each other in the House of Commons as the story flashed over their smartphones.

Minutes later, the Tories were handing out printed copies of the offending quotes to reporters outside the Commons. And Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, who hails from Calgary, was dispatched to express outrage over them.

Trudeau's campaign swiftly issued a statement accusing the Tories of using "out-of-context statements made years ago in a long interview" to launch a desperate "smear campaign" aimed at reviving the faltering Conservative byelection campaign in Calgary Centre.

In the interview, with the Tele-Quebec program Les francs-tireurs, Trudeau said: "Canada isn't doing well right now because it's Albertans who control our community and socio-democratic agenda. It doesn't work."

Asked if he thinks Canada is better served when there are more Quebecers than Albertans in charge, he said: "I'm a Liberal so, of course, I think so, yes.

"Certainly, when we look at the great prime ministers of the 20th Century, those that really stood the test of time, they were MPs from Quebec ...This country, Canada, it belongs to us."

The resurrected Trudeau quotes piled on a gaffe a day earlier by Ottawa Liberal MP David McGuinty. He resigned his shadow cabinet post as natural resources critic after saying Alberta Tory MPs are "shills" for the oil industry and should go home.

Both were gifts to the Conservatives, who are trying to hold on to Calgary Centre -- a Tory riding for more than 40 years -- in a byelection Monday. Polls suggest it's a tight contest, with Liberal Harvey Locke only a few points behind Conservative Joan Crockatt.

Trudeau has repudiated McGuinty's comments. But Kenney said the Montreal MP's own comments two years ago show he actually shares the same anti-Alberta bias.

"This is the worst kind of divisiveness, the worst kind of arrogance of the Liberal party and it brings back, for many westerners, the kind of arrogance of the National Energy Program, which of course devastated the western economy," Kenney said.

-- The Canadian Press

The next PM?

A Canadian Press Harris-Decima poll asked if Canadians would vote Liberal next election with Justin Trudeau at the helm. Here's how 1,000 or so Canadians responded:

Atlantic Canada 60 per cent

Quebec 48 per cent

British Columbia 43 per cent

Ontario 41 per cent

Manitoba & Sask.32 per cent

Alberta 30 per cent

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition November 23, 2012 A18