For all the hoopla in the Canadian media about a bad week on the campaign trail for Stephen Harper (described by Craig Oliver as irritated and unenergetic), the latest poll released by Nanos has the Conservatives increasing their lead to 11%. How can 80% of the news coverage report a terrible week for Harper, but the Party's lead actually increases? Is anyone really listening to Jane Taber and friends? Or are they listening and not buying the spin? It is curious how public opinion rarely matches up with conventional punditry. The people are smarter than Craig Oliver gives them credit for. He couldn't really understand why the Tories aren't plummeting in the polls.
I think a lot of Canadians just want a stable majority government. This minority chaos is not endearing to anyone.
Be kind. It must be heart-breaking for Oliver and Taber to see the lead getting larger. Poor useless pieces of gorilla excrement that they are.
ReplyDeleteImagine what the polls would say if the media was unbiased, or heaven forbid, biased in favour of the Conservatives! We'd be looking at over 250 seats!
ReplyDeleteI wonder if because of our minority governments and the constant "campaigning" that goes on because of them, people just aren't viewing the news coverage any different. Maybe the public is just use to "Harper sucks, blah blah blah" after five years and are tuning out or it just doesn't have any bite anymore (do the excessive "crying wolf" of the opposition?)?
Tory in comment #2 makes a really good point. It feels like we've been having a constant election campaign for the last five years. People are indeed tuning it out.
ReplyDeleteMost major news broadcasters ratings have fallen quite significantly, so there are less people watching the liberal biased news. Canwest filed for bankruptcy & was later bought up by Shaw Media, which eventually downsized by slashing hundreds of jobs. The CBC is burning money, they were forced to layoff hundreds as well & they had a shortfall of 65m last year, how you accomplish that with $1.1Bn in taxpayer subsidies is beyond me. So I'm guessing Canadians have wised up and are starting to check the facts for themselves,their not just trusting what the media personalities have to say anymore.
ReplyDeleteI have heard that CBC's "The National" draws between 30 to 35 thousand viewers per broadcast. Can anyone verify this?
ReplyDeleteOne would think that a private broadcaster would have to pull the plug on something rated that low!
I can't imagine Lisa LaPlegm or Floyd draw hoards of viewers either, and I would really be interested in the viewership numbers for the piece of crap "Question Period" every Sunday.
I don't think the Tories have had a bad week, but the Liberals have a better one. The reason it isn't showing in the polls is people are not really paying attention. If you guys remember back in 2006, it took three weeks for Harper to surpass Martin in the polls so don't expect the polls to move until we are well in the campaign. If the Tories can turn things in their favour, the numbers should stay strong, but if the Liberals continue their strong showing and the Tories their okay expect things to tighten up. Not enough to lose the election, but enough to lose some seats rather than gain and enough to put Harper's leadership in question.
ReplyDeleteCBC's numbers are much larger than that, but most of their rating come from Hockey night in Canada, Jeopardy & Wheel of Fortune. Other than the two game shows few CBC programs land in the Top 30 watched programs. One thing I find Interesting though is the two Game Shows are slated to be cut from the CBC lineup in favor of more Canadian Content, eg. (little terrorist on the prairie, Being Erica, Etc.) So Expect to see them bleed even more of the taxpayers hard earned money in the near future.
ReplyDeleteAnon @ 4:54
ReplyDeleteI was referring only to "The National", and I believe it was on the Michael Coren show where I heard the viewership numbers I referred to before.
Funny. Their audience has tuned out and they don't notice.
ReplyDeleteSorry my bad, misread you question. "The National" numbers are down but not by that much, but they have been steadily declining over the last few years though. I posted a link to an article that goes more in depth about it.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.viewers.ca/discus/showthread.php?t=5597
Polls taken before the debate provide fodder for us political junkies but their practical value really only exists as benchmarks for comparison purposes after the election is done. I don't think that general interest is any higher or lower to this point as compared to other campaigns...the public doesn't consider the race until after it sees the leaders in action IMO.
ReplyDeleteIt will be interesting to have a poll a week AFTER Fox-North goes on line.
ReplyDeleteI undersstand that Bell still does NOT want to carry it. If enough threaten to change providers perhaps they will carry it.
Liberals had the media gushing all over lip licking Iffy.
ReplyDeleteThey were trying to manufacture a horse race where none exists, at least not yet.
The only time Libs numbers moved was when PMSH 'intentionally' got Iffy to do a 'any time any where' dance....that was to remind Canadians that Jack is NOT going to lead the coalition of losers,
the #2 pick from the B Team is.
CPC stayed above 38% the entire week, even got to 41%.
Libs gainsed from Dippers and Cons gained in Ontario and Quebec.
But if Liberals and their media want to pretend Iffy Libs are surging, let them fill their boots.
Re What Clown Party said.... David Aiken (of Sun News) posted on his website "Sun News will be broadcast on Bell expressview Channel # 213 and on Rogers Cable channel #15"
ReplyDeleteHOORAY!!!!
Bob
Miles Lunn makes a good point. The Conservatives had a good week, but the Liberals had a really good week. Its only been one week, but the Conservatives need to step things up a little bit. I'm not sure that four more weeks of what we saw this week is going to be enough.
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