Nanos: Liberals, Cons. in dead heat still.

I am pleased to see a Nanos poll out so soon after the last one he did - mainly because of all the contradictory polling results we’ve seen since then. The latest results? A dead heat between the Liberals and Conservatives, and the NDP falling quite substantially:

Federal Ballot: Liberal 34%(+1), Conservative 34%(+3), NDP 14%(-5), Bloc 10%(nc), Green 8%(nc)

At this particular point, the Liberals compromise on Afghanistan they crafted has not hurt their position from the last Nanos poll, while the NDP has surprisingly dropped during this time period. As others have said, perhaps it’s because they and their position has been marginalized by the media over this debate. Perhaps in an election, they’d get more people to pay attention to their position.

Just one addition to this, I know there are many still in the Federal Liberal caucus who don’t like Warren Kinsella (leftover from the Martin-Chretien battles) but I do think in the wake of this poll what he says makes a lot of sense, and some of our Nervous Nellies MP’s in the Liberal caucus (as well as our leadership) would do well to listen:

..as the private negotiations about Afghanistan started to become public, various Liberal MPs started to speculate - out loud, when microphones were in the vicinity - about what THEY thought should happen, or would happen. In a matter of days, there were as many positions on Afghanistan as there were members of Liberal caucus, it seemed. Having lived through the Chretien-Martin wars (if barely), I learned many things. One of them, believe it or not, is that it is never a good idea to have MPs sit in caucus, Blackberrying the proceedings to grateful reporters, waiting outside those padded doors. Another thing I learned - call me crazy - is that, if the leader and the caucus take a position, you stick with it…To me, the (election) strategy is simple. Just remind everyone that the minority Conservatives aren’t what the majority Conservatives will be like. So, to avoid any further confusion and worry, elect a Liberal government. Will they do it? Who knows. Ask the Liberal MP at the back of the room, sending Blackberry messages about the internal strategy discussions, okay?

I don’t want the Liberals or Dion turning into Stephen Harper 2 with his clampdown on what MP’s or even Cabinet Ministers are allowed to say, but I would like to see a little more media and message discipline from this Liberal Party in Ottawa, so we dont have 24 people saying 24 different things, and I’d like to see the leaking of what are supposed to be private internal discussions stopped. Perhaps the Liberals leadership should come up with a rule that no Blackberries are allowed to be turned on or used during caucus meetings.