PUBLICATION
GLOBE AND MAIL
DATE:
SAT DEC.14,2002
PAGE:
A9
BYLINE:
SHAWN MCCARTHY
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GLOBE
AND MAIL/CTV/IPSOS-REID POLL
Keep
Liberals, dump gun plan survey finds
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SHAWN
McCARTHY
OTTAWA
BUREAU CHIEF
The
Liberal government limped out of a bruising fall session yesterday with a
commanding lead in popularity over opposition parties, a position virtually
undented by a plague of scandals and screwups, a new Globe and Mail/CTV poll
suggests. The Ipsos-Reid survey also suggests Canadians are upset over Liberal
mismanagement of the controversial gun registry, with 53 per cent saying the
registry should be scrapped because of cost overruns.
Still,
asked which party they would vote for if an election were held tomorrow, 41 per
cent of those surveyed supported the Liberals. The opposition parties trailed
far behind with 17 per cent supporting the Progressive Conservatives; 16 per
cent for the Canadian Alliance, and 12 per cent for the New Democrats.
The
Liberals slipped three points from their October support level, but that is
within the 3.1-percentage-point margin of error in a poll that sampled 1,000
Canadians.
Darrell
Bricker, Ipsos-Reid's president for public affairs, said the Liberals' continued
success reflects the lack of a credible opposition party.
"People
really don't see an alternative at the moment," he said.
Despite
their continued lead in the polls, the Liberals finished the fall sitting of the
Commons with a distinct sense of dissension and concern that their reputation
for sound fiscal management has taken a beating over the gun registry fiasco.
According
to the Ipsos-Reid poll, reaction to the gun-registry problem was sharpest in the
West. Nationally, 53 per cent of respondents said the registry should be
scrapped, while 43 per cent agreed it has saved lives and should be maintained.
In
both British Columbia and Alberta, 67 per cent said the gun registry should be
killed. In Quebec, the majority -- 52 per cent -- said it should be kept.
Ontario was evenly split.
Mr.
Bricker said the cost escalations at the gun registry damaged the Liberals'
reputation for sound management, but he added there is no opposition party in
place to benefit from that problem.
Still,
supporters of former finance minister Paul Martin, the front-runner to replace
Prime Minister Jean Chretien, are worried that Canadians are increasingly
disenchanted with the Prime Minister and his Liberal government, even if they
have not shifted their support to another party.
And
there is renewed pressure on Mr. Chretien to move up his retirement from the
proposed date of February, 2004, and leave before the summer.
The
veteran of nearly 40 years in politics acknowledged his embattled status with
some gallows humor on Thursday when he was presented with an environmental award
for his dedication to ratifying the Kyoto Protocol on global warming.
Mr.
Chretien grinned and pointed to himself when his award -- a Robert Bateman print
of a polar bear on thin ice -- was unveiled.
"Political
life is like skating on thin ice and you never know where there will be hole
that will gobble you up and you will disappear forever," he said.
"But
at the end of the day you say to yourself, I have survived one more day."
Many
Liberals say Mr. Chretien's days should be numbered. A couple of back-bench MPs
renewed their calls for him to leave sooner rather than later.
But
the Prime Minister has said publicly -- and privately to his caucus this week --
that he has no intention of leaving earlier than planned and will continue to
pursue the activist agenda that was laid out in the Speech from the Throne that
initiated the session early this fall.