Voters overwhelmingly want Green leader at debates: Poll
— Canadians overwhelmingly want the Green party’s Elizabeth May to participate in future leaders’ debates during the federal election, a new poll for Postmedia shows.
Between now and Oct. 9, several leaders’ debates are scheduled or in the works, though it is not yet certain who will attend each. However, the Greens’ May, broadly thought to have performed strongly in the Maclean’s debate last week, is shut out of many.
Asked whether they approve or disapprove of inviting May to future debates, 79 per cent of those polled signalled that May should be invited. Eleven per cent disapproved.
“Obviously, people believe she belongs in debates, overwhelmingly so,” said Quito Maggi, president of Mainstreet Research, which conducted the poll.
May has appealed to debate hosts and other parties to include her in future events. “Canadians will have a hard time understanding why Elizabeth May has not been invited to the Globe and Mail, Munk, and TVA debates, and they will demand to know why,” party spokesman Julian Morelli said in a statement last week.
The poll provides a hint, however, of why some of her political foes might not want her there. The Maclean’s debate appears to have given a shot in the arm to at least one other participant: Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, who had been lagging in public opinion surveys until his better-than-expected debate performance.
The Mainstreet Research poll for Postmedia indicates that among all voters, the Conservatives under Stephen Harper now hold the support of 26 per cent of Canadians, with both the NDP and Liberals at 24 per cent. Among decided voters only, the Tories have 32 per cent and the NDP and Liberals are tied at 29. By either measure, it’s a three-way race.
“Trudeau’s performance (in the debate) was not exceptional, just well above expectations,” said Maggi. “After months and months of being told by Conservative ads that Justin is ‘just not ready’ ... suddenly Trudeau did appear ready in the debate.”
Mainstreet surveyed 5,401 Canadian adults via interactive voice response telephone calls on Monday and Tuesday. The margin of error was plus or minus 1.35 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. Results were weighted against the 2011 Canadian census.