Time to unite the left, poll suggests

More than half of federal Liberal and NDP supporters back the idea of their parties merging into one with the aim of defeating Stephen Harper’s Conservatives, a new poll suggests.

The online survey of more than 1,000 Canadians, conducted exclusively for Postmedia News and Global Television, also shows Harper leading all party leaders when it comes to positive impressions, with 28 per cent of those surveyed voting favourably for the prime minister.

By comparison, when asked whether they had positive, negative or no impressions either way of the other leaders, just 19 per cent said NDP leader Thomas Mulcair had left a positive impression on them, followed by interim Liberal leader Bob Rae at 18 per cent.

While Harper’s popularity “is a little lower than what you would expect, it’s all relative,” said Ipsos Reid CEO Darrell Bricker.

“It’s all (about), how do you compare to your major competitors? And obviously (Harper) is pretty well ahead.”

The real news, he said, is that Mulcair “isn’t taking off” and still needs to establish his personality and his appeal with the Canadian public.

“Mulcair, in spite of all of the speculation in Ottawa about how things have taken off for him since the leadership contest, I just don’t see it,” Bricker said. “The challenge for Mulcair is to stand up and get defined.”

Sixty per cent of those surveyed said they had no impression either way of the NDP leader. However, only 20 per cent had negative impressions of Mulcair — substantially fewer than the 48 per cent who had negative impressions of Harper.

Overall, a majority of Canadians agree either strongly (19 per cent) or somewhat (38 per cent) that they consider the Liberal party to be a “party of the past, not a party of the future,” according to the poll.

Among Liberal supporters, 21 per cent believe their own party is a party of the past.

The poll comes as Liberals mull allowing interim leader Bob Rae to run for the party’s permanent leadership. In accepting the interim leadership following the Liberals’ third-place showing in last year’s federal election, Rae agreed to a stipulation laid out by the board that he would not run for the permanent leadership. Despite the promise, the board is widely expected to pave the way for him to run when it meets next week.

More interesting is whether any Liberal leadership hopeful campaigns on a ticket of supporting a merger of the left, “because clearly a majority of Liberal party supporters think it’s a good idea,” Bricker said.

Sixty-four per cent of Liberal supporters and 57 per cent of NDP voters said they “strongly” or “somewhat” support their parties merging into a single party.

The poll was conducted between June 5 and June 7 and involved a sample of 1,010 Canadians interviewed online.

The poll has an estimated margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.