Canada Tories more popular, brush off election talk
OTTAWA, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Canada's governing Conservatives have a substantial lead in a new poll but Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on Tuesday he still has no intention of calling an early election.
Harper was elected in January 2006 with a minority government, and if Canada were to return to the polls before summer it would mean the third election in three years.
"My preference remains that we get things done for Canadians. I don't think Canadians want an election, and I'm in no hurry to have an election," Harper told a news conference.
A Strategic Counsel poll published in the Globe and Mail newspaper on Tuesday put support for the Conservatives at 34 percent, up from 31 percent last month. The opposition Liberals had 29 percent support, down from 35 percent a month ago.
Allan Gregg, chairman of the Strategic Counsel which produced the poll for the newspaper and television's CTV News, said the new numbers should deliver a jolt of confidence to Harper as it improved Conservative prospects of winning a majority of seats in the House of Commons.
"These numbers are good enough that I would start my election preparedness in earnest," Gregg told the paper. "I would say, looking at this, something untoward would have to happen for him not to call it."
Political parties usually need at least 40 percent of the popular vote to stand a chance of winning a majority of the 308 seats in the House of Commons, so Harper would still have to make further gains to capture that.
If he won more seats but failed to get a majority, he would still have to rely on the support of one of the three opposition parties in Parliament.
The poll showed the left-leaning New Democrats had 14 percent support, while the Green Party -- which has no seats -- had 12 percent and the separatist Bloc Quebecois 11 percent.
A reporter asked Harper to defend the idea that he did not want an election, given that the Conservatives have run campaign-style TV ads attacking the record of Liberal leader Stephane Dion and that he has made numerous funding announcements recently.
The prime minister responded that Dion had spoken about an election as soon as he was elected as leader of his party in December.
"So I decided our party had to be ready. I think we have given signals to the opposition that we will be ready if necessary, and I hope that the opposition will reconsider its position, because the people don't want an election," he said.
"They want us to continue governing, and we intend to do so."
Conservative sources say his strategy, after having been labeled by the Liberals as scary, is to govern as long as possible and thereby get Canadians accustomed to Conservative leadership.
The poll showed 36 percent thought Harper would do the best job as prime minister, while 18 percent picked Dion.
Harper's next major test will be to have Parliament pass his budget, expected to be introduced on March 20 or shortly thereafter. If the budget were to be voted down, an election would have to be called.
The Strategic Counsel survey of 1,000 people was conducted Feb. 15-18 and is considered accurate to within 3.1 percentage points 19 times out of 20.
(Additional reporting by Blaise Robinson and Scott Anderson)
