OTTAWA - A new poll provides insight into why the Harper government popped its own O Canada trial balloon so quickly last week: massive and immediate public opposition.
A survey by The Canadian Press Harris-Decima found that 74 per cent of respondents opposed rewording the national anthem to make it gender neutral, flak that began appearing even before Prime Minister Stephen Harper's spokesman grounded the notion just 48 hours after its was floated in the Conservative government's throne speech.
With only 19 per cent of respondents in favour, the anthem proposal was the one true clunker in a government blueprint that otherwise met widespread public approval.
"Of the throne speech elements we tested, this was the only one that found little support," said pollster Doug Anderson.
At a time when well over a million voters are out of work, it's no surprise that the survey indicates 87 per cent agreed with the proposal to freeze the salaries of MPs and senators.
Another 79 per cent backed the speech's promise of more tough-on-crime legislation, which remains a central tenet of the Conservatives' campaign strategy.
And the idea of creating a high arctic research station garnered the support of 69 per cent of respondents.
The federal budget received relatively robust support.
Of the 1,905 adult respondents, 42 per cent said they supported the budget and 28 per cent opposed it.
Approval varied depending on a person's political preferences: 51 per cent of Bloc Quebecois supporters opposed the budget, while 74 per cent of Conservative backers liked it.
"The way I would describe it is broad support, mild not wild," said Anderson, senior vice-president of Harris Decima.
"It is broad, and that should be encouraging to the government."
The Conservatives have not been able to get their popular support numbers into figures that would deliver a majority mandate and Anderson doesn't see that happening right now. But he said the speech from the throne and the budget could give the party some positive momentum.
"What they all need to do is garner what support they can, and move towards a time when an election would be more opportune."
Anderson has a word of caution. The poll was conducted between March 4-8, early days in the aftermath of the two major documents.
"The communications cycle is such that the government is always the first one out of the gate with their messages . . . and the criticism tends to lag," said Anderson.
"Given that we were doing this in the first few days, there might be more effective criticisms that emerge over time."
The poll has a margin of error of 2.2 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
