Just a few short days ago, the Greens had surpassed the NDP in terms of popular support in a national Strategic Council poll. That lead has melted away. In a new poll released today by the Strategic Council, support for the NDP is pegged at 16%, while support for the Greens has dropped to 8%.
However, the fact that the Greens have maintained support levels between 8 and 13% since January 2007 should be enough to prove to the Canadian Broadcasting consortium that Elizabeth May belongs in the national leaders debate. After all, the NDP won less than 7% of the vote in the 1993 election... You can see all the details of the latest poll for yourself here.
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4 comments:
I agree that with the Green sustaining a respectable amount of support the NDP should have a strategy of addressing the issue.
I don't think anything as hasty as inviting May into the leaders debate is the solution. Last I checked the Greens do not have representation in Parliament. In 1993, the NDP went from having 43 seats to nine, and then rebounded in 1997 to 21 seats. Similarly the PCs went from 169 to 2 seats in 1993 to 20 seats in 1997. For both of these parties, 1993 represented a dip in support but both were able to maintain elected representatives even thought they lost official party status. The Greens have yet to elect anyone.
Why should representation in Parliamentary be the only criteria? If a new party was polling ahead of one or two of the traditional parties for a sustained period of time, surely they be included in the debate. The Liberal leader was included in the Saskatchewan debate even though that party did not have any seats in the legislature. The same is true of the NDP in PEI and New Brunswick.
Perhaps that poll was one of those 19 out of 20 times when it is completely inaccurate.
I remember seeing the actual polling data on their web page, and I thought it said that the NDP was at 17% support, while the Greens were at 6 or 8%.
Just wondering about those figures from the Globe because they are different at the poll site.
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