Cdns. suspicious of a Tory hidden agenda: poll

[Spazito]

The Liberal Party's strategy to portray Stephen Harper as an ideologue with a hidden agenda up his sleeve appears to be working.

Over half of Canadians still don't trust the Conservative leader, according to a poll conducted by The Strategic Counsel for CTV and The Globe and Mail.

Of the 1,000 people surveyed, 57 per cent said they believed Harper's Tories are keeping their most unpopular plans under wraps -- plans that many Canadians might find unpalatable should they come to fruition under a Conservative government.

"Clearly (Harper's) not been able to shed some of his history with the Alliance and Reform party," said Timothy Woolstencroft, a managing partner with The Strategic Counsel. "There is a real profound sense out there that Stephen Harper has got a hidden agenda. And the Liberals have been successful in implanting that image."

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http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1114819917404_110229117/?hub=TopStories

(It seems we still have our wits about us, lol)

[w4rma]

1. All they have to do is look a little South to see what their unsaid agenda

is.

[tuvor]

2. Harper's self-centered opportunism seems pretty apparent.

He's a vulture.

[illbill]

3. As a Canadian myself...

I appreciate that you can notice that quality as well. :)

[enigmatic]

5. Yep..

W/ the appeal of a cold cup of Tim Hortons coffee. Now that Jack Layton and Paul Martin have made a deal, I'm betting there won't be an election anyway, unless Harper wants to make sure The Tories implode..

[achtung_circus]

4. .

" And the Liberals have been successful in implanting that image."


It's not the Liberals. That image and that threat is always there. Harper didn't morph from the Reform Party. The Reform Party is still there; it has new window dressing, no more.

[enigmatic]

6. I came up here just after Stockwell Day resigned as head of the Alliance..

And he's crazier than Haper; a Ted Byfield groupie..

[Spazito]

7. I agree, 'Doris' Day is wacko but

he is less dangerous than Harper, imo. Everyone could see right away that 'Doris' was one brick short of a load but Harper isn't crazy he is cunning and deceptive and some Canadians are buying it, unfortunately, although, from the poll in the OP not the majority.

[Kagemusha]

8. Harper is smug. When he shows it, he kills his chances.

Lately he's been smug and seen to be smug, and the polls reflect that.

[Hand]

9. Roger that...

Certain qualities will doom a Canadian politician.

One is being perceived as "stuck up", which brought down Lyin' Brian Mulroney--his and his wife's ostentatiously elegant lifestyle at a time of severe economic recession and a lot of suffering destroyed his government and his party.

Another is, as you mention, being perceived as smug, which is kind of a variant of being "stuck up". Harper's that way, and it's hopefully enough to keep him out of Sussex Drive. Add to that his pretty transparent personal ambition, and you've got a deadly combination--I HOPE!

In some ways, Preston Manning was a lot more dangerous than Harper, if only because he could joke about himself and seemed folksy and sincere (crazy as hell, bigoted, racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, ignorant, etc., etc., but sincere). Just conceivably he would be more electable than Harper these days.

Stockwell ("Doris") Day was such an obvious raving egomaniac that he never had a prayer. Pity the NeoCons weren't stupid enough to keep him around.

:hi:

[KingOfLostSouls]

10. BLAME CANADA!!!

it had to be said.