Ottawa

Behold the Nan(ourobor)os: 33/31/18/9/7

I know, I know —  you’re all so very, very tired of polls, which don’t mean anything except on election day, and it’s all within the margin of error, and why does ITQ continue to torment you like this? Why? Because she’s a monster, that’s why. But since she’s not without a sliver of sympathy for the overly-poll-put-upon amongst you, she’ll keep her off the cuff observations on today’s results securely confined behind the jump.

Anyway, we’ve got the latest numbers from Nanos out today, which show  …  pretty much the same thing as every other poll we’ve seen over the last few months — a virtual tie between the Liberals and the Conservatives. It’s worth noting, I suppose, that support for both parties appears to have lessened over the past month or so, at least as far as the Nanos-o-matic graphics: the Conservatives are down by less than a percentage point, but the Liberals have fallen by more than two percent. What’s interesting is that, as far as ITQ can recall, this is the first poll in ages to show the NDP creeping out of the mid-teen doldrums; a quick look at the regional breakdown suggests that this is largely due to increased support in Ontario and Quebec, although oddly, the party seems to have experienced a not unsubstantial drop in Atlantic Canada, which would suggest that the orange wave that carried Darrell Dexter to power in Nova Scotia may be ebbing away.

Meanwhile, on the leadership front, both leaders are down slightly, although interestingly, those numbers show a slightly more significant slide for the Conservatives than the Liberals, which is the reverse of what we saw in the party preference results. Jack Layton, meanwhile, is up slightly, mostly because of a minisurge in Quebec. (Insert standard disclaimer about even vaster margins of error in the regional breakdowns here.)

This month’s survey also finds that the economy is continuing to fade away as the dominant national issue, with health care poised to resume its traditional spot atop the list of things that worry away at the Canadians political psyche. While mulling over the numbers, ITQ suggested to a fellow poll-watching obsessive that this resurgence could be due to the ongoing debate south of the border over health care, Canadian-style or otherwise —  or possibly by growing apprehension over H1N1, or the isotope shortage — only to be told, in no uncertain terms, that nobody out there sees any of those things as “health care”. That’ll teach her to draw conclusions! ((Later, FPWO clarified that they agreed that the increased coverage of the Canadian health care system by the American media may be nudging it back to the centre of our collective political consciousness.)

Anyway, feel free to chat about that, or anything else that occurs to you after checking out today’s Nanos numbers, in the comments.

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