Nevertheless, the polling firms are all over the place in terms of which way they lean and which party they favour. Léger Marketing and EKOS actually stand up well compared to the other Pollsters although that doesn’t fit the Conservative story very well and will be ignored by them.

–From Threehundredeight.com–

The top pollster for the Conservatives is Ipsos-Reid, which tends to poll them 3.5 points higher than other pollsters. The worst for the Conservatives is Harris-Decima, 2.4 points below average.

The top pollster for the Liberals is Environics, which tends to poll them 3.2 points higher. The worst for the Liberals is Angus-Reid, which polls them 2.1 points lower than the others.

For the NDP, the best pollster is Angus-Reid, 1.7 points higher than average. The worst are Ipsos-Reid and Environics, 2.2 points lower than average.

And for the Greens, the best pollster is the Strategic Counsel, 2.3 points higher than average. The worst is Angus-Reid, 2.2 points lower than average.

Léger Marketing and EKOS seem to be the pollsters with the fewest outliers. Léger Marketing doesn’t have a variation of more than one point, while EKOS doesn’t have one of more than 1.5 points.

From: http://threehundredeight.blogspot.com/2010/03/polling-firm-leanings-update.html

Forget the polls. Contrary to folklore, Harper is a terrible campaigner, and the Conservative caffeine crew will find ways to screw things up. Don’t underestimate the large number of people out there who do not like this government. The NDP and Greens will bleed support. We should not be afraid of an election. Never.

Andrew Coyne at Macleans said this:

It is impossible to believe the government could be so reckless. The means of addressing its national security concerns have always been available to it. That it has refused to engage the opposition on these raises two distinct scenarios. Either it is simply too bloody-minded to give an inch to its political foes, on whatever matter, or the documents contain something truly awful, so scalding to the national conscience that it would be prepared to go to almost any length to suppress them. Either, that is, it is behaving completely irrationally, in a way that can only be harmful to its own best interests. Or it is behaving all too rationally.

It says something when it doesnt bother Conservative supporters that they are flaunting the rules and will of Parliament and are covering up documents that may show they’ve authorized some pretty bad stuff.