Canadians Offer Their Thoughts On The Election As It Heads Into Its Last Week

Toronto, ON - According to the latest Ipsos Reid survey of voters, conducted on behalf of CanWest News Service/Global News, most (65%, +37 points from a survey conducted just before the start of the election) now believe that the Conservatives will win the upcoming election, while just 20% (-42 points) feel the Liberals will win.

But while most believe a Conservative victory is probable, they are split when it comes to the question or whether or not they believe Stephen Harper and the Conservatives have enough candidates who are capable of being effective cabinet ministers: Half (50%) believe that they do, while the other half (50%) do not believe so.

Further, more than half (56%) agree Stephen Harper is too extreme to be Canada's prime minister (essentially unchanged from 55% who felt this way at the outset of the election campaign).

However, eight in ten (79%) believe that Stephen Harper has run "a good campaign", and 66% feel Paul Martin has run a "bad campaign".

And just as many Canadians now choose Stephen Harper (33%) as the candidate that would make the best Prime Minister of Canada as choose Paul Martin (30%) -- 26% believe Jack Layton would make the best Prime Minister.

Come Election Day, 57% say they would prefer a majority government outcome (-8 points from a survey conducted in early December 2005), versus 43% who say they would prefer a minority.

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 +/- 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 attached files to view full press release and detailed tables.

For more information on this news release, please contact:
Dr.Darrell Bricker
President & COO
Ipsos Reid Public Affairs
(416) 324-2900
[email protected]

Ipsos Reid
Ipsos Reid is Canada's market intelligence leader and the country's leading provider of public opinion research. With operations in eight cities, Ipsos-Reid employs more than 300 researcher professionals and support staff in Canada. The company has the biggest network of telephone call centres in Canada, as well as the largest pre-recruited household and on-line panels. Ipsos Reid's Canadian marketing research and public affairs practices are staffed with seasoned research consultants with extensive industry-specific backgrounds, offering the premier suite of research vehicles in Canada - including the Ipsos Trend Report, the leading source of public opinion in the country - all of which provide clients with actionable and relevant information. Ipsos Reid is an Ipsos company, a leading global survey-based market research group.

To learn more, please visit www.ipsos.ca.

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