Harper among least trusted leaders, poll shows

DANIEL LEBLANC---The Globe and Mail
Monday, Nov. 12 2012

Canadians are slowly losing trust in Parliament and political parties, and share some of the toughest views in the American hemisphere about their national leader, according to a new 26-country survey.

At the same time, Canadians are holding on to their positive views of the Canadian Forces and the RCMP, an above-average appreciation of their law-and-order institutions.

All in all, Canadians are expressing dissatisfaction with their political system, but also no appetite for major changes to the federal apparatus.

The survey by The Environics Institute, part of an investigation into political attitudes in 26 countries in the Americas, found that Canadians have been shedding some of their optimistic and positive views on politics and government.

While attitudes toward politics are slowly improving in the southern half of the Americas, the findings in Canada show “clear evidence of decline” in the approval of political institutions since the first survey was conducted in 2006.

“Canada hasn’t made any progress [on a number of key rankings] in recent years, and it has lost a bit of ground on others in the last few years,” said pollster Keith Neuman of The Environics Institute. “The gap with other countries is smaller than it was before.”

The survey found only 16 per cent of Canadians place “a lot of trust” in their Prime Minister, putting Stephen Harper near the bottom among all leaders in the Americas.

“In an international context, Harper has a lower level of trust than almost every other national leader in the hemisphere,” Mr. Neuman said.

The levels of trust are also low for the Canadian Parliament (17 per cent), political parties (10 per cent) and mass media (6 per cent). The findings come after Canada lived under a series of minority governments from 2004 to 2011, fuelling a sense of growing partisan bickering in Ottawa.

Still, the survey found little appetite for major changes to Canadian institutions or the governance regime, with large numbers of respondents feeling that they can make their views heard in the political process.

“There is no groundswell for an overhaul of the system,” Mr. Neuman said of the results.

A large number of Canadians have trust in institutions such as the Canadian Forces (53 per cent) and the RCMP (36 per cent), and the level of confidence in the country’s justice system remains above average among respondents to the pan-American survey. Mr. Neuman said that the Canadian Forces and the RCMP have long commanded much respect in Canada, despite controversies that have affected the national police force in recent years.

The full results of the Canadian survey will be made public on Thursday at a meeting of the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association in Ottawa.

The 2012 AmericasBarometer survey was conducted in 26 countries. Overall, 40,971 people were polled, with samples ranging from 1,412 in Haiti to 3,009 in Bolivia. Each questionnaire was administered by a domestic pollster, with the polls conducted in people’s homes everywhere but in the United States and Canada, where an online survey of 1,500 respondents was conducted.

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Former Chief Electoral Officer discusses seriousness of illegal Conservative Robo Calls

Former Chief Electoral Officer discusses seriousness of alleged Conservative voter suppression charges and impersonation of Elections Canada Officials attributed to Harper's Conservatives in the 2010 election. Jail sentences and stiff fines may result if guilty verdicts are rendered and by-elections may be called in ridings where such activity has effected the result. Hold on to your hats....Thn Harper Government may be thrown out if a few election results are overturned....and it is doubtful with the illegal election fraud, that Conservatives would win any seats that become contested through these by-elections! There is still hope for Canadians!

Is the Harper Government the legitimate Canadian government?

Elections Canada reportedly has received over 30,000 complaints of illegal Robo Calls directing liberal and NDP voters to the wrong polls. Can you trust these guys to run this country?

Get some goons with clubs to insure Liberal and NDP don't vote----Is this the Harper Conservatives Election Strategy?

How are the Conservative Robo Call voter suppresion tactics different from goons standing at the door with clubs in some third world country ensuring that voters are unable to cast their vote? Think of the G20 police violence against Canadian citizens, the Conservative In and Out funding scandals, the $50M misappointed funds to ensure Tony Clements re-election, the peroquing of parliament twice to avoid loss of confidence votes against all parliamentary traditions in Canada...and now the robo calls! Will the very un-Canadian ethics of this Harper Government never end?

Illegal Robo Calls----Deny! Deny! Deny!

Deny! Deny! Deny! That's the conservative Johnny-one-note message re the illegal robo calls redirecting voters to the wrong polls. The other party panelist and the commentator on this CBC TV parliamentary news show raise some interesting questions that remain unanswered by the Conservatives when all the evidence points strongly at these illegal calls being part of their national campaign in over 30 closely contested ridings. As for the Conservatives conducting their own investigation, there have been news reports that they are listening to recordings of the illicit calls and my consern would be their destruction of any incriminating tapes. Hopefully Elections Canada will supoena all of these records before the evidence is destroyed.

Alleged Conservative illegal campaign tactics during May 2, 2011 Federal Election

It is alleged that the Stephen Harper Conservatives used robo calls and live telephone calls from hired calling centers directing non-conservative voters to the wrong polls, with callers and recorded calls often identifying themselves as Election Canada officials, and called many Liberal leaning voters late at night, often with rude calls, saying they were from the Campaign Office of the local Liberal Candidate, and called many Liberal supporters of the Jewish faith on Saturday, their holy day. Elections Canada has received over 30,000 such complaints and, along with the RCMP, have launched an investigation into these alleged illegal election practices. According to the longtime Commissioner of Elections Canada, these practices could result in jail time for those committing the offences and also result in by-elections from a null and void election result where the calls were seen to result in unduly influencing the election outcome. As expected, the Harper Conservatives are vehemently denying any wrongdoing while the opposition Liberals and NDP Parties are calling for investigations of the practices

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