Angry in the Great White North

Ipsos-Reid shows the Tories solidly in the lead, indeed in majority territory.  CROP shows the Conservatives becoming competitive in Quebec again.  And now Angus Reid continues the trend:

The survey conducted Aug. 25 and 26, shows that 34 per cent of decided voters - up 1 percentage point from July - would vote for the Conservatives compared to 30 per cent for the Liberals, down 4 percentage points since July.

Harper's personal popularity has taken off with 27 per cent of Canadians preferring him as prime minister compared to 17 per cent for Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff. Layton is third with 12 per cent. In vote rich Ontario Harper leads Ignatieff by 13 points.

Maybe we're not getting a Liberal government after all.  I wonder how that'll affect the weather.

The personal polling numbers must be particularly galling for the Liberals.  I mean, they picked this TV star to be Liberal leader.  Sure the rank-and-file saw through his facade and recognized him to be a crypto-conservative pseudo-American, and refused to vote him in as leader.  So the Liberal power brokers arranged for a palace coup that bypassed the Liberal Party membership and so installed Michael Ignatieff as leader.  No fuss, no muss.

Better yet, Michael Ignatieff was able to declare that Barack Obama had read some of his books.  Barack Obama!  I mean, come on people!!

So what the hell is going on?  Michael Ignatieff is not popular.  But if he isn't popular, what is he?  He's got no platform ideas or firm positions.  All he is is a suit.  And if people don't like this suit, then what?

That is an unpalatable thought.  So expect a series of declarations: summer polls are never reliable, Angus Reid is a lousy pollster, the poll is the third outlier in a row, conservatives are stupid, Canadians are stupid, someone added the numbers wrong, blah blah blah.

And when no one is looking, they'll be shaking their heads.  A freaking recession, and yet Stephen Harper is more popular than Michael Ignatieff.  Someone is wondering just what it will take to swap out Michael Ignatieff for someone else.  I suppose if they can find an excuse under 55(2) of the Liberal Party Constitution...