Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his wife Laureen help the National Capital Commission light up Parliament Hill for Christmas on Dec. 1, 2011.Adrian Wyld
Canadians are approaching 2012 in better spirits than last year, which gives Stephen Harper and his Conservatives even more impetus to quickly fulfill their election promises, according to a new poll.
As Mr. Harper and his majority government push through controversial pieces of legislation including scrapping the long-gun registry, dismantling the Canadian Wheat Board and a raft of tough-on-crime legislation that will see more prisoners behind bars in costly new cells, Canadians are happy about the government's direction and the country's standing in the world.
"I think it means that [the Prime Minister]has some political capital that he can expend," pollster Nik Nanos told The Globe. "Not only do the numbers look good but there is no clear opposition to him and it's a bit of a unique situation. It's an unprecedented situation to have both of the two other main parties without leaders."
This means Mr. Harper can "tick off all of those partisan promises that he has made to his Conservative base," Mr. Nanos said. The Prime Minister, he added, has a bit of a "political pass" for 2012 because the other two main parties are mired in a transitional stage, which provides a "natural advantage" for the governing Tories.
The NDP is to select its new leader by late March. The Liberals won't do so until 2013.
According to the Nanos Research poll, conducted for Policy Options magazine, 63.5 per cent of Canadians believe the country is moving in the right direction compared to 52 per cent in 2010. And nearly half of Canadians – 48.7 per cent – believe the country's reputation in the world has improved, up 20 points from last year.
Mr. Nanos characterized this as the "Canadian spring," borrowing a phrase from the democracy movements seen in the Middle East over the past year.
Mr. Harper and his government's approval scores have also improved: 40.2 per cent of respondents said the performance of both the Prime Minister and his government were very good or good, an improvement of 10 points from last year. And 24.3 per cent of those surveyed gave the Tories a poor or very poor score, down four points from last year.
Mr. Nanos said a number of factors have contributed to the strong Tory numbers, including the fact Canada's economy is doing well in comparison to those in Europe and the United States; that the war in Afghanistan is ending; and that the Libyan mission is complete.
The poll of 1,202 Canadians was conducted between Oct. 20 and Oct. 24. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.