He's Our Man

"He's solid, solid, solid. Usually, governments that govern longest tend to accumulate barnacles and cuts and bruises and all sorts of other problems. They lose momentum.
"The truth is that he's got his coalition. And the thing about the Tory coalition is it's pretty solid. The people who like him, like him.  And the people who don't, don't. Ever thus.
"People need to stop thinking about this as if he's got to win 100 percent of the vote.  He doesn't.
"In the last election, he won just under 40 percent. Sounds like he's got about five points clearance."
Darrell Bricker, president Ipsos Reid

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  Conservative Party leader and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper speaks to supporters at 
  his federal election night headquarters in Calgary, Alberta, May 2, 2011.
  (ANDY CLARK/REUTERS)

Good news for the Conservatives, for the Conservative government of Canada, for Prime Minister Stephen Harper.  And good news for those Canadians who believe he is performing very well in leading this country.  There are three major political parties in this country and several minor ones at the federal level, all of whom contest one another for the lion's share of electoral votes.

Split 100% three ways and you've got 33+%. On May 2, 2011 the Conservatives received a 39.62% vote share, giving them 167 seats in Parliament, and a majority government. 

An Ipsos Reid poll conducted on December 7, 2012 verified that 44% of Canadians feel Mr. Harper's government is "working well"; 45% share the Prime Minister's "values" on where he taking the country; while 48% feel Stephen Harper's "approach to politics" favours Canada's future.

International studies, it was pointed out, demonstrate that governments that enjoy approval ratings of over 40 percent can anticipate a strong probability of re-election.  There are polarizing positions to be sure; Atlantic Canada, Quebec, the urban core of major cities don't approve of this government.  While Canada's West, rural Canada and suburban Toronto fully approve of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government.

"He's not playing the role that they (political critics) want him to play. This is the mistake that people make who say Stephen Harper is like a Republican. He's not. He's like a northeastern Republican. He's not perceived as somebody who has strangely out-of-step values. And that's principally because he does not get engaged in policies that have to do with religious values arguments."