Interesting story from the Globe -- I don't know the accuracy of the CARP poll but it's suggestive at least:
"Canada's seniors, who can be counted on to vote and tend to vote Conservative, are angry over the government's decision to scrap the mandatory census long form, according to a new poll suggesting Stephen Harper could be punished in a general election as a result.
The online poll by CARP – the national, non-profit organization advocating for Canada's older population – shows too that Canadians 55 years and older do not have concerns about privacy issues related to the census.
Susan Eng, CARP's vice-president of advocacy, says this group of Canadians prefers the Conservatives when life is just going apace but when "something like this happens they go nuts."
"They start as a Conservative base. They went nuts over proroguing. They were absolutely offended by that. You want libertarians? This is your group of libertarians," she said, noting the numbers from previous CARP surveys.
Today's poll is part of a bi-monthly e-newsletter; nearly 4,000 of CARP's readers responded to this poll, which was conducted over the weekend.
It shows that the Conservatives have lost more than 10 per cent in retired voter preference in the past two weeks – 41.1 per cent would vote for the Tories in the July 12th poll on health care compared to 31.8 per cent in this poll... . "
4 comments:
For the Conservatives, while they are trying to entrench the support of libertarians, they are alienating other groups of Conservative supporters such as seniors and many people in the business community.
Tom Flanagan mentioned on CBC Newsworld (or whatever it's called) that Tony Clement and the Conservatives could have made minor changes to make the long form census more palatable such as eliminating jail-terms for non-compliance, plus having a committee to review and eliminate contentious questions.
Someone had suggested that with our technology, that we could have an evolving census that changes automatically every time we officially change our address for our driver's licence, tax forms, and electoral enumeration.
James, CARP is already a vocal supporter of the mandatory census.
Check out their website, Scott has the link, and read the lead up to the 'what do you think' poll.
It was 100% negative article on the government and then a 'don't you agree us now?'.
... and interestingly, though he hasn't even been on my radar, Ralph Goodale is looking very good on the census issue. This is a great video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMnMjzPGseE
*This* is the kind of talk I want to hear from an opposition leader.
I love it when the Harpertards alienate their base.
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