Honest Steve

At this point, publishing polls has almost become a waste of space in newspapers. It would likely be more productive to splash Mr. Martin's and Mr. Harper's horoscopes across the front page. Look no further than today's numbers:

Allan Gregg
Con 31
Lib 27
NDP 20
Bloc 14
Green 7

Decima
Lib 37
Con 28
NDP 18
Bloc 12

Whaaaaaaaaaaaa? There is the equivalent of a 13 point swing between these polls (Libs up 9 versus Libs down 4). Personally, I tend to put more faith in the Gregg poll because he actually included the Green Party and I can't for the life of me see how Martin gained support as Guite and Corbeil were flinging accusations around left, right and centre. But at this point, the only thing the polls have showed us is that the electorate is more volatile than it's been in decades. I doubt any new polls will tell us much more than that. What this means is that the election campaign is going to be very important. A strong campaign by either Martin or Harper could get them a strong minority.

More interesting are the "bonus questions" in Gregg's poll. For the past year, Martin has been polling well above his party. I've always thought this was because Paul has been making decisions to raise his stock, even if it hurt the Liberal brand. But it was pretty obvious that this was an artificial high and it was only a matter of time before his stock crashed down to the party's level. It appears that crash has finally arrived.

61% say Martin is the leader most likely to tell a lie. 54% said he was the most hypocritical and 63% said he was the most dishonest. Ouch.

And remember, it's not like his opponents are titans of Canadian politics. Most Liberals I talk to will admit the only thing the Liberal Party has going for it right now is Stephen Harper. Will that be enough to win the next election? Nobody knows. The pollsters certainly don't.