Willing to listen

A Decima survey conducted last month asked whether people would accept a phone call from one of the current federal leadership contenders. And it shouldn't be a surprise which one the voters surveyed would be most interested in talking to:

A national survey by Internet phone service company Vonage Canada, conducted by Decima Research, found 34 per cent of voters would ignore a caller-identified phone call from Mr. Martin.

Conservative party leader Stephen Harper's call would be the second most ignored, followed by Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe. The New Democratic Party's Jack Layton would have the best chance of success getting on the horn: only one in four Canadians would ignore the NDP leader, and he'd be most welcome in Quebec...

Atlantic Canadians would be the most receptive, with more than 40 per cent answering any of the leaders' calls, while Quebecers would be least interested in political chit chat.

The numbers are too close to indicate a radical difference between the leaders, particularly given the unusual question. But the relative position of the leaders is still worthy of note - particularly in that Quebeckers surveyed were most willing to hear from Layton while being comparatively reluctant to answer calls from the other leaders.

It's tough to guess as to what proportion of the results is based on voters simply not having heard a candidate's message rather than genuinely wanting to hear more of it. But to the extent that the latter is in play, the survey could once again hint at more Canadians being receptive to the NDP's message than to that of any other party. The question now is whether Layton has managed to get through during the course of the campaign.