Tories More Trusted For Decisions On Canada's Interests: Poll

CBC  |  Posted: 05/02/2012 8:38 pm Updated: 05/04/2012 11:24 am


Canadians hold greatest trust in the Conservatives for making the right decisions in the country's interests — but they think the NDP does the best job of representing voters’ views, according to a newly released online survey by Nanos Research.


The survey, provided exclusively to CBC News, offers fresh insight into how Canadians think the federal parties are doing one year after the last federal election.


Asked what federal party is best at making decisions in the long-term interests of Canada, 27 per cent cited the Conservative Party, 21 per cent pointed to the NDP and 17 per cent lauded the Liberal Party.


But Nik Nanos, President of Nanos Research, noted a large swath of respondents were either undecided or didn’t answer – showing that no party has a clear advantage.


“It’s kind of like if you’re in the desert, it’s like drinking a dirty glass of water,” he told CBC's Power & Politics host Evan Solomon. “No party has what I'll say is the upper hand on long-term decisions, because there’s still a significant number of Canadians who just aren’t happy with any of the federal parties.”


The Conservatives also emerged in the lead on the question of which party Canadians believe is best at managing policy priorities in a changing situation. According to the poll, 25 per cent picked the Conservatives, 20 per cent the NDP and 16 per cent chose the Liberals.


The survey also asked which federal party is best at representing the views of voters who elected them. On that question, 31 per cent said the NDP was doing the best job, compared to 21 per cent who said the Conservatives were the top representative. Another 12 per cent said the Liberal Party is best for standing up for voters’ interests.


The Nanos Research online survey of 1,002 Canadians was conducted between April 13-14, 2012.


Also on HuffPost:

Loading Slideshow...
  • How Old Were Our Prime Ministers?

    Here's a look at how old each Prime Minister was on the day he or she was sworn in.

  • Sir John A. Macdonald - 52

    (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Prime_Ministers_of_Canada" target="_hplink">Wikimedia</a>)

  • Sir Alexander Mackenzie - 51

    (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Prime_Ministers_of_Canada" target="_hplink">Wikimedia</a>)

  • Sir John Abbott - 70

    (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Prime_Ministers_of_Canada" target="_hplink">Wikimedia</a>)

  • Sir John Thompson - 47

    (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Prime_Ministers_of_Canada" target="_hplink">Wikimedia</a>)

  • Sir Mackenzie Bowell - 70

    (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Prime_Ministers_of_Canada" target="_hplink">Wikimedia</a>)

  • Sir Charles Tupper - 74

    (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Prime_Ministers_of_Canada" target="_hplink">Wikimedia</a>)

  • Sir Wilfrid Laurier - 54

    (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Prime_Ministers_of_Canada" target="_hplink">Wikimedia</a>)

  • Sir Robert Borden - 57

    (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Prime_Ministers_of_Canada" target="_hplink">Wikimedia</a>)

  • Arthur Meighen - 46

    (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Prime_Ministers_of_Canada" target="_hplink">Wikimedia</a>)

  • William Lyon Mackenzie King - 47

    (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Prime_Ministers_of_Canada" target="_hplink">Wikimedia</a>)

  • R. B. Bennett - 60

    (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Prime_Ministers_of_Canada" target="_hplink">Wikimedia</a>)

  • Louis St. Laurent - 66

    (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Prime_Ministers_of_Canada" target="_hplink">Wikimedia</a>)

  • John Diefenbaker - 61

    (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Prime_Ministers_of_Canada" target="_hplink">Wikimedia</a>)

  • Lester B. Pearson - 65

    (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Prime_Ministers_of_Canada" target="_hplink">Wikimedia</a>)

  • Pierre Trudeau - 48

    (CP)

  • Joe Clark - 39

    (CP)

  • John Turner - 55

    (CP)

  • Brian Mulroney - 45

    (CP)

  • Kim Campbell - 46

    (CP)

  • Jean Chrétien - 59

    (CP)

  • Paul Martin - 65

    (CP)

  • Stephen Harper - 46

    (CP)


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Canadians hold greatest trust in the Conservatives for making the right decisions in the country's interests — but they think the NDP does the best job of representing voters’ views, ...
Canadians hold greatest trust in the Conservatives for making the right decisions in the country's interests — but they think the NDP does the best job of representing voters’ views, ...
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
canuckistaneh
Science!
12:48 PM on 05/06/2012
It's amazing how the sheeple can be deceived and manipulated with the mainstream media on your side.
04:14 AM on 05/04/2012
The core of the problem is that Harper represents foreign imperial interests, not Canada. Of course, those same imperial interests exert pravda like control over most of the press and broadcast media in North America.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
feuille derable
La République du Canada
03:55 PM on 05/03/2012
Huff Post Canada, aka, the drudge report. This is not who we are.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
ProgressiveCDN
A Progressive Moderate
05:26 PM on 05/04/2012
I agree, this non-stop politics doesn't fit the Canadian way and it's really polarizing our society... The days of the happy, common-sense Centrist country that we've all known and loved is sadly behind us. America 'lite' is what Harper is ushering in, and the NDP is serving a similar function.. Where the left and right gel, the Liberal Party, is a sign of the times.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Marcus Davies
I'm still standing
02:53 PM on 05/03/2012
Polls of any kind three years before an election are pretty much meaningless. The only real poll worth watching is the growing unease people have with Majority Harper. They have come to discover they like him even less than Minority Harper, and that seed of unease, once planted, is near-impossible to kill. Ignore the polling numbers and listen to your neighbours: they just have a bad feeling about the guy.
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BCSLAVE
Got a key?
01:55 PM on 05/05/2012
Forcing seniors to work or go on welfare when Harper rests and nests at their expense will do that.

People should find him untrustworthy; he hides bills in the fine print of unrelated bills even though he has a majority. That's a red flag.
02:42 PM on 05/03/2012
38% do not trust the conservatives.
Compared to the 27% that do.
It is easy to see what must be done.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
tnanimation
02:35 PM on 05/03/2012
A nothing poll about nothing. More Reform party spin directly from the PMO.
With all other polls indicating waning support for Harper this is simply a desperate
effort to stop the downward spiral.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
piceaglauca
The picture says it all....
01:39 PM on 05/03/2012
The only reason why they are being trusted is because the Conservatives limit the amount of information released. Eventually there will be no disclosure publically as they continue to muffle independent reports, lobby groups and eventually instruments of the crown such as Elections Canada, Statistics Canada, the Auditor, the Attorney General, and so on. How could we not be more complacent and feel we are on a dream ship to never never land.
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BCSLAVE
Got a key?
01:59 PM on 05/05/2012
Three possible ports this ship is sailing toward:

Never Neverland
Out of gas and drifting towards the rocks (Think George W Bush at the end of his last term)
Doom (Hitler)
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
piceaglauca
The picture says it all....
08:11 PM on 05/05/2012
Any one will work..
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
William Muller
01:06 PM on 05/03/2012
This poll is a very sad comment on Canadians grasp of what is happening in Ottawa. Don't people read the news anymore? If they did they would know about things like:

Conservatives misleading Parliament and the Canadian people.

Conservatives employing crooks and scammers like Bev Oda, Tony Clement, Peter MacKay, and Vic Toews (convicted of election fraud in Manitoba)

Conservatives gutting environmental regulations so they can ram pipelines and dirty mines through.

Conservatives jacking up taxes on the middle class while they lower taxes for the richest corporations.

Conservatives wanting to spend billions of taxpayers money on jets that haven't even been built yet and calling a 10 billion discrepancy in the cost a mere "accounting error".
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BCSLAVE
Got a key?
02:00 PM on 05/05/2012
Its a planted poll. It certainly sounds fishy.
11:38 AM on 05/03/2012
I am so looking forward to seeing what photo number twenty five will be.
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Another Pesky Canadian
Talk - action = 0
11:13 AM on 05/03/2012
Just this minute I stopped believing in polls of any kind forever.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
piceaglauca
The picture says it all....
01:41 PM on 05/03/2012
Yep, I'm sure the Alberta election was a poll ploy to force the electorate into voting mode. Fear brings results, maybe for the best. I wish I knew.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
arkymorgan
Nobody knows the trouble I've been...
11:12 AM on 05/03/2012
Well, 27 per cent of people still using land-lines think so, anyway.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Francmon
Homo homini lupus
11:04 AM on 05/03/2012
Since the Cons operate on their hard earned, illegally obtained majority, I guess we have to trust the decisions they make... But, to most Canadians, there is a world of difference between "trust" and "blind faith" and Harper will never deserve the latter. And the other parties have not yet earned the "blind faith" part either...
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Another Pesky Canadian
Talk - action = 0
11:14 AM on 05/03/2012
Re: "I guess we have to trust the decisions they make.."

We'll have to agree to disagree on that point, my friend.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Francmon
Homo homini lupus
11:23 AM on 05/03/2012
I don't trust Harper at all, but I am, for the next 3 years, stuck with his distorted views of how we should live. I really (And cynically...) have to trust the Cons decisions, while waiting to be able to undo all the mistakes that will have abused my trust...
thephuqqer
not the chicken plucker.
10:47 AM on 05/03/2012
How can this be ?!?!?..........................Are Canadians so apathetic that they can ignore the scandals and lies, the robo calls, the lies about the price of the new jets, the spending of tax-payers money on luxurious hotels like it grows on trees, Clemens' 50 million dollars on a gazebo to beautify his own riding; The Liberals were bad, but not as arrogant as these Mulrooneyesque right-wingers.
11:53 AM on 05/03/2012
Please don't insult Mulroney. He was a crook and did a lot of things I really disliked but Harper makes him seem like a saint.
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BCSLAVE
Got a key?
02:14 PM on 05/05/2012
True...at the end of the day you could laugh at a joke Mulroney cracked. Conversely, Harper is cold, conniving, and aloof. His personality seems eerily similar to that famous orator who only smiled at his German Shepard and his mistress.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Norma Ward
10:14 AM on 05/03/2012
Here is an article that shows that during the most recent Parliament, an average of 10 percent of the MPs that we elect and pay a minimum of $157,000 annually cannot take the time to vote on the Bills that are brought before Parliament:

http://viableopposition.blogspot.ca/2012/05/canadas-absentee-mps-case-of.html



That's the new style of democracy in Canada.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
piceaglauca
The picture says it all....
02:03 PM on 05/03/2012
Interesting.
12:13 AM on 05/05/2012
Sometimes members are told not to show up for a vote by their party whip for strategic reasons.
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albertarick
These are questions for wise men with skinny arms
09:50 AM on 05/03/2012
The polls and pollsters need to wake up and realize the general population doesn't trust their information. How bad do they have to screw up before the media stops reporting on their corporate manufactured polls.