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Poll: Conservatives eager for an early federal election

The federal Liberal government is off-balance because of the NDP's decision to end the supply and confidence agreement, and an online poll shows that Conservative readers are hungry for an election.
20210903 Federal election signs RV
Candidate signs near the intersection of Victoria Road and Grange Street.

The shaky deal with the NDP that had — sort of — allowed Justin Trudeau's Liberal government to act like a majority finally fell apart last week

What happens now? 

A vote-by-vote survival mode for the government, is an option, though one that involves a semi-permanent state of crisis.

A deal with the Bloc? The math works, but that may be the only thing that works about the idea. 

"The trick for the Liberals," Globe and Mail columnist Campbell Clark wrote recently, "is to defuse, delay and, in the end, try to pick the day of their own defeat."

What may save the government, for now — for now — is that only one major party really seems to want an election. 

Which one? Well, an online poll this week shows pretty clearly:

People over 60, people with university degrees, people in higher income brackets and women were less enthusiastic about an early election:

In general, support for an early election correlates with positions on the right (which may or may not be positions the Conservatives themselves have adopted)

Interestingly, people with tattoos are more likely to support an early election, a Conservative-associated position. As we saw last week, tattoos correlate with a libertarian set of positions generally, which can (often) sit comfortably with the more libertarian side of the Conservative coalition as it appears at the moment.

Dog people are most in favour of an early election, and cat people are most opposed:


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Patrick Cain

About the Author: Patrick Cain

Patrick is an online writer and editor in Toronto, focused mostly on data, FOI, maps and visualizations. He has won some awards, been a beat reporter covering digital privacy and cannabis, and started an FOI case that ended in the Supreme Court
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