Friday, August 20, 2010

It will be difficult for Tories to recover from census debacle


photograph by Jake Wright, The Hill Times

The tide has turned on Prime Minister Stephen Harper since he began a summer jammed with major events he hoped would lead to rising support for his party and—had all gone as planned—a possible snap election in the fall.

In the aftermath of negative publicity over the G-8 and G-20 summits, the spectacular public relations disaster over what should have been just another routine census, and the sobering loss of nearly 140,000 jobs in the Canadian economy in July, pollsters and politicians say the only running Prime Minister Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) might want to do over the next two months is away from a call to the polls.

"He is going to think about it," said Strategic Counsel pollster Tim Woolstencroft. "My estimate is he's not going to call an election because he's going to ultimately say, 'Is the risk worth the potential of losing seats and just having a much weaker minority, and potentially losing your government?'"

Source: The Hill Times

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