THE UNITED ALTERNATIVE PARTY

The pool of 1,138 Reform Party and Progressive Conservative Party supporters referred to in this survey are decided voters who on any of the last three Angus Reid Group national surveys said they would vote either Progressive Conservative or Reform in the next federal election. If they offered either of these voting choices to our interviewers, they were then asked some questions about the United Alternative concept and United Alternative leadership.

These data are statistically weighted to ensure the sample's regional, age and sex composition reflects that of the actual population. With a sample of this size, the overall results are within 1772.9 percentage points (19 times out of 20) of what they would have been had the entire adult Canadian population been polled. The margin of error will be larger within regions and for other sub-groupings of the survey population.

THE UNITED ALTERNATIVE PARTY

--United Alternative Party has support of majority (55%) of Reform and PC party supporters--

--Manning the preferred leader (62%) of those most likely to vote UA--

As the United Alternative's convention begins today in Ottawa, the Angus Reid Group's most recent survey provides the most comprehensive picture of how current Reform Party and Progressive Conservative Party voters are likely to respond to a new United Alternative Party.

Our survey shows that a slight majority (55%) of the combined pool of PC Party and Reform Party supporters support the UA option. A further 41 percent are opposed. Not surprisingly, Reform Party supporters (68% support) are more likely to support the UA option than current PC Party supporters (43%). However, there is clearly a strong minority of PC supporters who would respond positively to the birth of this new political option.

On the question of leadership, of those who support the UA, a strong majority (62%) would prefer to see Preston Manning as the leader of the new party as opposed to 28 percent who would prefer Joe Clark as the leader. Interestingly, among Tories who want a United Alternative, 50 percent would prefer Joe Clark as leader, while 40 percent prefer Preston Manning. Furthermore, among all PC and Reform Party supporters surveyed, regardless of their view of the UA, 49 percent would prefer to see Manning as the leader of the UA, with 38 percent preferring Joe Clark, and 13 percent preferring neither leader or remaining undecided.

For more information on this news release, please contact:

John Wright
Senior Vice-President
Angus Reid Group
(416) 324-2900

Darrell Bricker
President, Public Affairs Group
Angus Reid Group
(416) 324-2900