NDP Still Tops in Quebec, But Topp Sure Ain't

Poll of the Day: Quebec still loves their 58 new NDP MPs – and that guy with the beard.

Today's poll of the day suggests that Quebec could be in it for the long haul with the NDP, as concerns of a “honeymoon” period giving way to voter remorse appear to be groundless just as MPs return to Ottawa to reconvene Parliament. A Leger Marketing survey found that 43 per cent of Quebecers would vote NDP, while the Bloc Quebecois is down to 23 per cent, the Conservatives at 19 per cent, and the Liberals, scraping the bottom of the barrel, have a miserable 11 per cent. Long gone are the days of Jean Chretien. Anyhow, the numbers for the NDP are holding steady from May 2 and the death of leader Jack Layton, which means that months of breathless commentary in the pages of national newspapers about how an entire province didn't know what they voted for were unmitigatedly wrong. As far as the NDP leadership race goes, the same survey found that Thomas Mulcair is the most popular candidate to take over (17 per cent nationally, 50 per cent in Quebec) followed by party president Brian Topp (10 per cent nationally, eight per cent Quebec). So much for Topp's ascendency to the leadership being a sure thing.