Liberals crashing and burning - about time

If you are unfamiliar with Canadian politics, Canada has been basically a one party state for the last thirty years and the Liberals have pandered to anyone with an open palm - especially in Quebec where they have bought one election after another. Finally, they have had their hands caught in the till, but good. Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of people...

Conservatives surge ahead
Liberals in freefall after devastating Gomery testimony

SUSAN DELACOURT AND ROBERT BENZIE
OTTAWA AND TORONTO

OTTAWA - Conservative Leader Stephen Harper would become prime minister if an election were held today, according to a new Toronto Star poll.

The poll, conducted by EKOS Research Associates, shows the federal Liberals are in a dramatic freefall, even in their usual Ontario stronghold.

EKOS surveyed Canadians immediately following the release of devastating testimony last Thursday by former Montreal ad executive Jean Brault at the inquiry looking into the federal government's sponsorship scandal. Brault alleged gross misconduct in the Quebec wing of the federal Liberal party.

The pollster found that only 25 per cent of respondents nationwide would vote today for the Liberals, compared to 36.2 per cent for the Conservatives. The Liberals won a minority government with about 37 per cent of the vote in June 2004.

In Ontario, the Conservatives now lead with 40 per cent of the vote. The Liberals are at 33 per cent. Prime Minister Paul Martin escaped the indignity of losing the government last year when the party won 74 of the 106 seats in Ontario.

It's not just the sponsorship revelations dragging the federal Liberals down in Canada's biggest province, but also the so-called "fair-share" campaign that has pitted Premier Dalton McGuinty's provincial government against Martin's Liberals.

According to Frank Graves, president of EKOS, last week's scandal revelations only "lit the fuse, igniting resentment over fair-share treatment and ultimately producing a Liberal implosion in Ontario."

EKOS surveyed 1,125 Canadians, 18 years and older, between Thursday and Saturday.

Results from a survey of that size are considered accurate to within 2.9 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

The national results gave the NDP 20.5 per cent of the vote; the Bloc Québécois, running in Quebec only, 12.6 per cent and the Green party 5 per cent.

Standings in the 308-seat House of Commons today are Liberals 133, Conservatives 99, Bloc 54 and NDP 19. There are two independents and one vacancy.

The results suggest the possibility of a spring election, although the opposition parties likely do not want to defeat the government until after the British Columbia election on May 17 and the visit by the Queen to Canada in late May.

And testimony at the sponsorship inquiry, headed by Justice John Gomery, also ends in late May.

For the Liberals, 25 per cent nationally represents a significant drop — 15 percentage points lower than they received in EKOS' last poll in February and 11 percentage points lower than the popular vote they gained in last June's federal election.