XPost: bc.politics, van.general, vic.general   
   From: CoalitionForCanada@notshaw.ca   
      
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   Vancouver Sun - October 16, 2010   
      
   Support for Gordon Campbell hits 'rock bottom' at 9%   
      
   Poll: NDP has a 25-point lead over the Liberals   
      
      
   VANCOUVER - Gordon Campbell’s approval rating, in free fall for months over   
   the harmonized   
   sales tax, has hit "rock bottom" with only nine per cent of British Columbians   
   backing the   
   premier, a poll released Friday has found.   
      
   Campbell’s dismal support level is the lowest recorded by any Canadian premier   
   over the past   
   two years, according to the Angus Reid Public Opinion survey.   
      
      
   The poll also shows that the electorate remains uneasy with NDP leader Carole   
   James. While her   
   party enjoys a huge lead with the support of nearly half of British   
   Columbians, the poll found,   
   her own approval rating lags far behind her party’s at 27 per cent.   
      
      
   The online poll of 804 adults, conducted on Oct. 13 and Oct. 14, found the New   
   Democrats backed   
   by 49 per cent of respondents, compared with the B.C. Liberals at 24 per cent,   
   the Green party   
   with 13 per cent and the B.C. Conservatives with eight per cent.   
      
      
   Campbell’s drop to nine per cent makes him more unpopular than former premiers   
   Bill Vander Zalm   
   and Glen Clark during their ill-fated terms in office in the 1980s and 90s.   
      
      
   Angus Reid Public Opinion vice-president Mario Canseco said his firm’s chief   
   executive officer,   
   Angus Reid, can’t recall a more unpopular B.C. premier.   
      
      
   "Angus has been doing surveys since 1979 and he’s never seen a result this low   
   for a premier."   
      
      
   Canseco said his firm had thought Campbell’s popularity had no direction to go   
   but up after the   
   premier’s rating hit 12 per cent in September.   
      
      
   "But now he’s really at rock bottom. There is no way to put this in a   
   different light."   
      
      
   Canseco said the electorate’s rejection of Campbell stems from anger over the   
   HST and his   
   nine-year incumbency.   
      
      
   The poll found that 72 per cent of British Columbians would vote in favour of   
   abolishing the   
   HST in the provincewide referendum, scheduled for September.   
      
      
   Canseco said outrage over the HST hasn’t declined. Voters are constantly   
   reminded of the tax   
   when they go to a restaurant or make other purchases, he added.   
      
      
   And, unlike the carbon tax, the rolling out of the HST was a public relations   
   disaster with its   
   announcement coming just days after the last election, the analyst said.   
      
      
   Voters also have grown tired of Campbell, who has been premier since 2001,   
   added Canseco,   
   saying that incumbency is far more of a drag on a leader’s popularity during a   
   severe recession   
   than during a period of growth.   
      
      
   "The level of animosity toward Campbell is a signal that people are getting   
   tired of what they   
   are seeing. It’s also happening in Ontario and Quebec, where there is an   
   appetite for something   
   new."   
      
      
   University of Victoria political science professor Dennis Pilon said   
   Campbell’s record   
   unpopularity could bring pressure on him from his party caucus and the   
   business community to   
   make way for a new leader — especially if the B.C. Liberals lose some MLAs in   
   recall votes.   
      
      
   "If they lose in recall fights, the push to push him out will really increase   
   because at that   
   point they will realize that they need to renew the brand and separate   
   Campbell from the B.C.   
   Liberals — this very successful vehicle that the centre-right has created."   
      
      
   Pilon added that it’s "ironic" that Campbell’s political career could be   
   undone by the same   
   anti-tax fervour that he fanned when he came to power nine years ago.   
      
      
   "He’s being hoisted on his own petard, as they say."   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)