Ipsos Reid/CanWest Global
Debate Night Polling

Summary
The results of a near instantaneous Ipsos Reid/CanWest Global survey of English-speaking Canadian voters who watched Friday's leaders' debate, shows that in a debate with no knock-out punches, Paul Martin (32%) won a very narrow victory over Stephen Harper (30%). Meanwhile, a quarter (24%) feel that Jack Layton won while only 4% feel that Gilles Duceppe won.

Best Ideas and Policies

But Stephen Harper (36%) was seen to have offered the best policies and ideas during the debate. In second place was Jack Layton (32%), followed by Paul Martin (27%) and in last place was Gilles Duceppe at 3%.

Sounded and Acted Like a Prime Minister

In terms of style, English-speaking Canadian voters say Paul Martin (45%) acted and sounded the most like a Prime Minister - 15 points higher than second place Stephen Harper (30%). Meanwhile, only one-in-five feel that Jack Layton (19%) and sounded and acted the most like a Prime Minister. Only 3% feel Gilles Duceppe sounded and acted like a Prime Minister.

Likeability

Just like last night's French debate, Jack Layton scored the best in terms of likeability with 40% of viewers saying that he was the most likeable and the person they'd most like to go out for a beer or coffee with.

Paul Martin (21%) and Stephen Harper (22%) are tied in terms of likeability while the least likeable leader was Gilles Duceppe with only 14% of viewers saying he is the person they would most like to go out for a beer or coffee with.

Format of Debate

Despite much discussion about the pros and cons of the current debate format, English-speaking Canadian voters give it a fairly strong endorsement with 57% saying they think the format is better than the format in previous leaders' debates while only 18% say the current format is worse. Twenty-five percent say it made no difference.

Effect of Debate on Vote

Overall, the effect of this debate on voters' intentions seems to be fairly small with only 14% saying they will change their mind about who to vote for as a result of tonight's debate.

Methodology

These are the findings of an Ipsos Reid/CanWest Global poll conducted on December 16th, 2005 immediately after the English-language leaders' debate. A total of 2611 English-speaking Canadian voters who watched the leaders' debate were surveyed via the internet, yielding results which are accurate to within 177 1.9% (19 times out of 20). The data were statistically weighted to ensure that the sample's age, sex, regional and party support composition reflects that of the actual English-speaking 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.

For more information on this news release, please contact:

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