OTTAWA-Conservative leader Stephen Harper is facing high expectations from Canadians, heading into Tuesday night’s English-language debate, according to a new survey.
The Ipsos Reid Poll, conducted for Global National revealed that one out of three English-speaking Canadians (33 per cent) believed Harper would win the debate.
Centre Block on Parliament Hill
The poll which surveyed 1,861 English-speaking Canadians online, also found that 24 per cent expected Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff to win, followed by 13 per cent who favoured NDP leader Jack Layton, and two per cent who expected Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe to come out on top.
In order of preference, the top priorities for respondents were the economy, healthcare and ethics and accountability in government.
Twenty-eight per cent of respondents wanted the leaders to talk most about the economy, followed by 16 per cent who favoured healthcare, and also the same percentage who favoured ethics and accountability as their top issue.
Taxes was the next most popular choice at 10 per cent, followed by jobs and unemployment at eight per cent, the environment at six per cent, education/schools/universities at four per cent, poverty – also at four per cent, crime and justice at two per cent, and the armed forces and military at one per cent.
Two per cent of respondents said they didn’t know what they wanted leaders and candidates to be addressing.
The poll was conducted from noon to 3 pm eastern time on Tuesday among 1,861 English-speaking Canadian adults from an online pre-recruited panel of over 6,589 voters.
The margin of error for an online poll is not available, but a sample of this size for a conventional poll would have an estimated margin of error of 2.3 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
Among other questions, respondents were asked: “Who do you think will WIN tonight’s leaders’ debate?” and “What is the most important issue for you in this election, the one that you most want the political leaders and candidates to be talking about?”
mdesouza@postmedia.com
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