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Canadians in favour of coalition government: poll

Canadians in favour of coalition government: poll

Most Canadians are in favour of two or more parties working in cooperation to govern if a single party doesn’t win a majority in the House of Commons in this year’s federal election, according to a recent poll from Forum Research.

When asked about the appropriateness of a coalition, the majority of the 1365 people polled – about 6 in 10 – were in favour of parties forming a coalition if there’s no majority in Parliament. A similar number, 54 per cent of respondents, said it would be appropriate if two or more parties agreed on an informal arrangement to govern the House of Commons.

There’s been plenty of talk of coalitions of late, leading up to the election that’s expected on Oct. 19, with many anticipating a minority government of some sort.

Last week Liberal leader Justin Trudeau said he is “unequivocally opposed” to a coalition between his party and the NDP, led by Tom Mulcair. Trudeau was clarifying his stance on coalitions from the day before, when he noted in an interview with the Canadian Press that he’d be open to such an idea, if it wasn’t working with the current NDP leader.

“I trust Canadians’ capacity to determine who will sit in their Parliament,” Trudeau said at a press conference.

“The fact is, I’m opposed to coalitions.”

In the Forum poll, most Liberal and New Democratic voters approved of the idea of cooperation, with 73 per cent of Liberal respondents and 69 per cent of NDP respondents in favour of formal coalitions. Conservative voters were much less likely to approve of any cooperative governing arrangement, whether formal or informal.

In all, one quarter of respondents (27 per cent) said they’d support the party with the most seats in the House if those seats don’t make up a majority.

“It appears that the idea of a coalition government isn’t the bogeyman to voters that the government would like us to believe,” said Forum president Lorne Bozinoff in a press release.

“Canadians are familiar enough with Westminster government that the wide majority will support some form of cooperative government in a minority situation. One thing is clear, the coalition they are discussing is between the Liberals and the NDP, to supplant a Conservative minority.”

Participants in the survey were also asked about their favoured electoral outcomes. About the same amount preferred Conservative, at 24 per cent, and Liberal, at 22 per cent, majority governments. Sixteen per cent of respondents would prefer an NDP majority.

More respondents, however, would rather see a minority government, at 31 per cent in total, led by either the Conservatives, Liberals, NDP or as a coalition scenario.