Survey Says

Liberals in dead heat with Tories, gaining in key battlegrounds: poll (Tories-Poll)
Source: The Canadian Press
Feb 1, 2010 15:28

OTTAWA – A new poll suggests the political ground is shifting under the Conservatives, with the Liberals making gains in key areas.

The Canadian Press Harris-Decima survey shows a continuing dead heat between the two parties, at 32 per cent each.

But below the surface, the figures suggest the Liberals are well ahead in Quebec and have inched into the lead in vote-rich ridings around Toronto.

The Liberals also appear competitive in British Columbia and they’re favoured by women voters.

The NDP is at 15 per cent, the Bloc at 10, and the Greens at nine.

The telephone poll of 2,000 people was taken Jan. 21-31 and has a margin of error of 2.2 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

INDEX: NATIONAL POLITICS

Update from the Good-Lord-I-Wish-I-Hadn’t-Written-That File: Post editorial mocks “growing public uprisings.” Wanna bet this one – and others, in which the conservative commentariat totally, totally dismissed the backlash against Harper’s three-month-long vacation (here and here and here and here) – won’t now be submitted for an NNA?


Andy Barrie

I’m sad to see him go. And my boys and I – who were listening to Metro Morning today, as we do every day as I drive them to school – missed the announcement of his retirement.

He’s been to Hell and back, so he certainly deserves a rest. But we’ll miss Andy Barrie.


Down from the Shimmering Sky

So it’s early, too early, at the rink. And the Globe’s travel section, of all things, has a wonderful feature on Pacific Coast native art. Go figure.

Anyone who knows me knows where this art ranks in the constellation of my life. It’s like religion, but bigger. Here’s the Globe feature. Above, a Stan Bevan photo of the sentinels of the Kitselas Canyon, near Terrace. (And here’s a page on their raising.)

Down from the shimmering sky: you have no idea.


Mark It on your Calendar, Maaan

…the poster is amazing, but we’re not actually Shit From Hell anymore. We’re SFH. We decided to make ourselves an interactive geriatric punk combo, and let our millions of fans decide what to call us: Stigma Fetish Hesitation! Spontaneous Fire Harvest! Societal Foam Hunk! Sudden Felony Horse! Have fun! Mix and match!

Most of all, attend!


Yes Men

There has always been fierce competition for control of the public agenda. Governments, unions, NGOs and companies all want your attention so that they can sell you something – an idea, a thing, whatever.

But the problem, of course, is that it has become a lot harder to do that. Folks have become savvier consumers of information; they are a lot more skeptical about what they see and hear. Along with that, Joe and Jane Frontporch are bombarded with hundreds of thousands of words and images every single day – what American writer David Shenk calls “data smog” – so they just tune it all out. It becomes noise, to them.

So, if you have a message to communicate, how do you overcome all of that? How do you break through the noise?

Ask the Yes Men.