Canadians reject Liberal-NDP merger, poll shows
Conservative support stays steady at 35%
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 12/06/2010 (5840 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
OTTAWA — Canadians have given a thumbs-down to the notion of a merger between the Liberals and NDP, a new poll conducted for Canwest News Service has found.
The Ipsos Reid national survey, conducted this week as Parliament Hill was awash with rumours, speculation and denials about a deal between the two parties, found that voters appear to want none of it.
About 56 per cent of voters think the merger is a “bad idea,” while only 30 per cent think it’s a good one, with 14 per cent unsure.
In addition, the poll found that among specific voters, 55 per cent of Liberals and 49 per cent of NDP supporters don’t like the idea of a merger. Perhaps predictably, neither do the Conservatives, with 75 per cent of voters rejecting an opposition merger.
Liberal voters who support the merger stand at 37 per cent, with 44 per cent for NDP voters and 15 per cent of Conservatives. The rest are undecided.
“The real issue that you have here is the faithful, the party faithful . . . are saying no, we don’t want to merge,” said John Wright, senior vice-president at Ipsos Reid.
“It’s not perceived as a good idea by voters and it seems unnecessary when the numbers really haven’t changed that much.”
If an election were held tomorrow, the Conservatives would remain steady at 35 per cent of the vote, with the Liberals falling two points to 27 per cent and NDP support staying put at 16 per cent.
The poll found Green Party support was up two points to 11 per cent, and the Bloc held on to 10 per cent.
Talk of a merger was quashed by both the Liberal and NDP leaders on Wednesday, despite the late-day release of sworn affidavits from well-connected Liberals who told of high-level discussions regarding “the creation of a new party.”
The affidavits, from former Liberal advisers Warren Kinsella and John Mraz, were quickly rebutted by Alfred Apps, the current Liberal Party president.
All of this followed a flurry of questions surrounding infighting within the Liberal party, spurred by NDP Leader Jack Layton who suggested that the issue “looks like Liberals talking to Liberals.”
— Canwest News Service