The Decima survey showed the Liberals with 37 per cent support and the Tories with 23 per cent, in a virtual dead heat with the NDP at 21 per cent...
The survey, released to The Canadian Press, indicated the New Democrats held small leads over the Tories in Ontario, among women, among single people and with voters under age 34. The results are less reliable for these smaller samples...
The Ontario results suggested the Liberals held a 26-percentage-point advantage over the Tories in the province. The Grits were at 48 per cent, the NDP was at 24 and the Conservatives held 22 per cent in Canada's largest province.
The reactions so far:
Well-deserved schadenfreude.
More well-deserved schadenfreude.
Well-deserved schadenfreude, part III.
A combination of hope and frustration.
From this corner, I tend to side with the Wonderdog, though with a bit of a different spin. The poll reflects an opportunity, but nothing approaching a win. While it's important to keep kicking the Cons while they're down to make sure they stay there, it's more important to get our message out and start convincing all those voters who list the NDP as their second choice.
There's now no basis for any self-respecting media outlet to give the Cons substantially more air time than the NDP. This is the party's time to make good use of that extra exposure.
That said, I disagree with the Wonderdog's take on this point:
Appeals to emotion have to be banned. The party has to present an unrelentingly practical image.
On the contrary. Now that we have a bit more of the limelight, it's time to make sure people remember what the NDP has to say. While the party's caucus should keep pushing practical issues within Parliament, this is also our best opportunity in a long time to highlight progressive issues in the media and push the public discourse to the left. And the NDP's signature issue is getting media attention.
Let's not waste this chance by going out of our way to be Liberal-lite.
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