Ignatieff shrugs off 2010 election, Harper down in polls

Canadian Liberal Party Leader Michael Ignatieff said in an interview on Saturday that he was not too keen on the idea of triggering an election next year. While a new poll shows that Prime Minister Stephen Harper is down in the polls.

In autumn of this year, the media came to the conclusion that Michael Ignatieff, the newest Liberal Party leader, would trigger an election and try to defeat Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Conservative minority government. However, that did not happen as the two sides came to an agreement. Ignatieff now says, according to an interview that was published on Saturday with La Presse, he doesn’t want a federal election come 2010, reports Reuters. He said that he heard the message that Canadians didn’t want an election in 2009 and that he understands it, “I think Canadians are still worried about the economy. They keep telling us 'We've had enough elections. Do your work and leave us in peace'. I think that will continue in 2010.” The polls show that even if an election were held, the Conservative Party would still hold on to its third consecutive minority government. This means that most likely Prime Minister Harper will get his budget through the House of Commons by February or March, even though all three opposition parties are against majority of his party's measures. Ignatieff added, “The priority in 2010 is to create (a) moderate, credible centrist option ... we have a lot of work to do.” In an interview with the Globe and Mail, Ignatieff said he wasn’t too pleased with his performance this year and said, “I worked hard, but my own sense is that I was learning all year, sometimes learning a little more slowly than I needed to be. I'm not someone who's happy with his performance, ever. It was a challenging year, no question.” Nevertheless, the Conservative Party leader’s approval rating is a little down, according to the latest Angus Reid Public Opinion online poll that was released on Saturday. The online survey suggests that 32 per cent of Canadians approve of the Prime Minister’s performance, which is down two points from November. While only 15 per cent of respondents approve of Ignatieff’s job. However, the biggest increase has been for New Democratic Party leader Jack Layton, where he has an overall approval rating of 29 per cent, which is up 5 points from November. The online survey was conducted among 1,000 Canadian adults between Dec. 9 and Dec. 10 and contains a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.