Canadian Voters Assess Future Prospects For The Prime Minister And The Liberal Party

Toronto, ON - With the finish line in sight, a new Ipsos-Reid / CanWest Global poll shows that if the Conservatives were to win a minority government on January 23rd, 2006 with the Liberals in "distant second", at least two-thirds (65%) of Canadian voters believe Prime Minister Paul Martin should resign as Leader of the Liberal Party. With a majority Conservative win, almost the same number (66%) believe the Prime Minister should step down as the Liberal Leader--thus setting in motion a Leadership campaign and vote among Liberals. And in an era where party leaders resign without less than eighty-or-more percent support by the party faithful in a leadership review, 42% of Liberal voters agree as well.

In the event that the Prime Minister steps down as the leader of his Party, Canadian voters' top candidate out of a list of possible contenders to take his place is Canada's current Ambassador to the United States and former Premier of New Brunswick, Frank McKenna (17%) followed by former Federal Cabinet Minister and Newfoundland Premier Brian Tobin (13%) -43% indicate "none of the above" to the list provided. Among Liberal voters, Mr. McKenna is proffered by 20% followed by former Mr. Tobin (17%), newly minted Liberal Minister and one-time-Tory Belinda Stronach (12%) and former Chretien Deputy Prime Minister John Manly (9%)

When asked who is to blame for the Liberal's current election troubles, a full majority of voting Canadians (57%) point to Liberal campaign advisors and strategists (35%) and Paul Martin himself (22%). Approximately four-in-ten (37%) Canadian voters blame former Prime Minister Jean Chrйtien.

Liberal voters are more split with a total of four in ten (42%) who point to Mr. Martin's campaign advisors and strategists (37%) and to Mr. Martin himself (5%) compared with 46% who blame the former Prime Minister . One in ten (12%) place no blame.

These are the findings of an Ipsos Reid poll conducted for CanWest News Service/Global News from January 13th to January 15th, 2006. A total of 8256 Canadian voters were surveyed via the internet, yielding results which are accurate to within 177 1.1% (19 times out of 20). The margin of error will be larger within regions and for other sub-groupings of the survey population. The data were statistically weighted to ensure that the sample's age, sex, regional and party support composition reflects that of the actual Canadian voter population. The sample was drawn from a pre-recruited panel of over 12,000 voters drawn from Ipsos Reid's internet panel.

Please open the attached PDF to view the factum and detailed tables.

-30-

For more information on this news release, please contact:

Dr. Darrell Brickert
President &COO
Ipsos-Reid Public Affairs
(416) 324-2900