Eight In Ten Canadians (78%) Support Fixed Four Year Terms For Federal Government

Toronto, ON - According to the latest Ipsos Reid survey conducted on behalf of CanWest News Service/Global News, eight in ten Canadians (78%) support Prime Minister Harper's recent announcement that he would like to see Canadians vote in fixed elections every four years in October. Twenty-two percent, though, want to maintain the traditional way of having the Prime Minister call an election when they see fit during their five year mandate.

• Residents of Alberta (87%) are the most likely to support this announcement, while Ontarians (73%) are the least likely to support it.

And when it comes to the topic of Senate reform, a plurality of Canadians (44%) indicate they would like an elected Senate --many others support "doing away with the Senate completely" (31%) and "keeping it pretty much the same as an appointed body except with eight year term limits" (25%).

Regionally, there is a divide in opinion about the topic of Senate reform when it comes to the Ontario/Quebec border.

• Those West of the Quebec border are most likely to support "electing Senators" (47% Ontario, 50% Saskatchewan/Manitoba, 57% Alberta, 50% British Columbia), while those East of the Ontario border are most likely to support "doing away with the Senate completely" (50% Quebec, 43% Atlantic Canada).

These are the findings of an Ipsos Reid poll conducted for CanWest News Service/Global News and fielded from June 1st to June 5th, 2006. For this survey, a representative randomly selected sample of 1,108 adult Canadians were interviewed via an online survey instrument. With a sample of this size, the aggregate results are considered accurate to within 1773.0 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what they would have been had the entire adult on-line Canadian population been polled. The margin of error will be larger within each sub-grouping of the survey population. These data were weighted to ensure the sample's regional and age/sex composition reflects that of the actual Canadian population according to the 2001 Census data. Please open the attached PDF to view the factum and detailed tables.

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For more information on this news release, please contact:

John Wright
Senior Vice-President
Ipsos-Reid Public Affairs
(416) 324-2900