Canadians OK with coalition government: poll

The Conservatives say a coalition would threaten economic stability but Canadians, by and large, wouldn’t have a problem with that kind of government.

A new Ipsos Reid poll conducted for Global National and Postmedia News indicates the majority of Canadians would prefer to see a Liberal-NDP coalition government (54 per cent) than a Conservative majority government (46 per cent).

Also, almost half of Canadians (48 per cent) support the idea of a coalition of opposition parties forming the government.

A little more than half (52 per cent) of Canadians oppose the idea.

Michael Ignatieff says he’s not interested in forming a coalition government, but Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper says that’s not true. The majority of Canadians (62per cent) believe Harper, while four in ten (38per cent) believe Ignatieff.

If a coalition of all three opposition parties – Liberals, NDP and Bloc – were to be formed, 59 per cent of Canadians would like to see NDP leader Jack Layton lead it. Just 27 per cent would like to see Ignatieff do so, and 14 per cent would choose Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe for the job.

Even Quebecers would prefer to see Layton (50 per cent) lead a coalition than Duceppe (29 per cent). Two in ten (21 per cent) would like to see Ignatieff take the reins.

No matter what problems they may have with Harper, nearly half (47 per cent) of them most trust him and his party to manage the economy, while 23 per cent most trust the Liberals and another 23 per cent most trust the NDP. Seven per cent of Canadians trust the Bloc to manage the economy.

Here are some other poll results about economy and accountability:

When considering who could provide open, responsible and ethical government, four in ten (39 per cent) Canadians most trust Harper and the Conservatives.

Jack Layton and the NDP (34 per cent) are in a close second place. Trailing behind are Michael Ignatieff and the Liberals (19 per cent) and Gilles Duceppe and the Bloc (nine per cent).

Only a minority of Canadians (44 per cent) are closer to the opinion that “the Conservative Party under Stephen Harper has done a good job and deserves re-election,” but if those Canadians who count themselves in this group voted for the Tories, Harper would have a good chance of forming a majority government.

Nearly six in ten (56 per cent) Canadians are closer to the opinion that “the Conservative Party does not deserve to be re-elected and it’s time for another party to be given a chance to govern the country.” However, those votes are split between all three major opposition parties.

Helping to explain the relative success of the Conservative Party in the polls, nearly six in ten (57 per cent) of Canadians believe that Canada is “moving in the right track,” compared to four in ten (43 per cent) who more closely believe that Canada is “headed in the wrong direction.”

The poll was conducted between March 29th and 31st. For this survey, a sample of 1,070 adults from Ipsos' Canadian online panel was interviewed online.

Weighting was then employed to balance demographics and political composition to ensure that the sample's composition reflects that of the adult population according to Census data and to provide results intended to approximate the sample universe.

A survey with an unweighted probability sample of this size and a 100 per cent response rate would have an estimated margin of error of +/-3.0 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what the results would have been had the entire population of adults in Canada been polled.

All sample surveys and polls may be subject to other sources of error, including, but not limited to coverage error, and measurement error.