Friday, June 26, 2009

A Certain Lack Of Backbone

Here is the Ottawa consensus in two paragraphs:
The survey conducted for CBC.com also found that more Canadians disapprove of Mr. Ignatieff's job performance today than before last week's election tensions. Thirty seven per cent of Canadians surveyed disapproved of Mr. Ignatieff's performance between June 17-23, compared to 34 per cent who felt that way from June 10-16.

EKOS President Frank Graves said it may be the ads are “finally starting to have a corrosive effect on his reputation. At the same time, Ignatieff was the public face of the Liberal brinksmanship last week, and that may have affected his personal reputation as well as the party's.”
in other words, Iggy's popularity is taking a beating because he dared to threaten an election that "no one wants". May I suggest an alternative explanation? Iggy's reputation is taking a beating because he threatened an election and then backed down -- again. In statistical terms, we call it the Dion Variable (leadership=decisiveness + will).

Update: Kady asks the right question:
Honestly, y’all, I just don’t know what to make of these numbers —I mean, yes, it does appear to back up the contention that Canadians were, to put it mildly, some ticked by Ignatieff’s brief but lively foray into electoral brinksmanship – but if that’s the case, why the extreme slumpage at the end of the week, when the danger had passed, and the Liberals — having backed down two days prior — were voting with the government to pass the last bits of the budget bill while counting down the minutes til the House would adjourn for the summer?
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1 comment:

  1. Yes.

    Don't know why it's so hard for analysts to figure it out -- stand for one thing, stand for another, but stand for _something_, dammit.

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