Our national survey completed Monday August 8, 2005 shows the Liberals with a 14 point lead over the Conservatives. Martin leads Layton as best PM by 16 points and 39% of Canadians would describe Liberal government performance as average.

"The big Liberal gains were in Quebec where they increased their support from 21% to 34% while the Conservatives have dropped from 11% to 4%."

"Polling clearly shows that Stephen Harper's image is in a free fall. In the past 90 days the percentage of Canadians who believe he would make the best Prime Minister has dropped from 27% to 14%. Jack Layton has mathematically placed second, the first time in SES Best PM tracking."

"The other dramatic move has been the number of Canadians who chose "none of the above" as their best PM. This has more than doubled from 8% to 19%. This is truly our summer of discontent.

Paul Martin still rates as the first choice of Canadians at 31%, 16 points ahead of his
nearest rival."

Polling August 4th to August 8th, 2005 random telephone survey of 1,000 Canadians, MoE ± 3.1%, 19 times out of 20). Percentages
may not add up to 100 due to rounding.
Canada - Ballot (Change from Previous
Quarter, N= 865 Decided voters, MoE ± 3.4%, 19 times out of 20) LIB - 39% (+3)
CP - 25% (-5) NDP -19% (+1) BQ - 13% (+1) GP - 5% (+1) *14% were undecided (+2)
Best PM (Change from Previous Quarter, N=1,000) Martin - 31% (-1) Layton -
15% (0) Harper - 14% (-13) Duceppe - 8% (+2) None - 19% (+11) Undecided - 13%
(+4)
Government Performance (Change from Previous Quarter, N=1,000) Very
good - 6% (0) Somewhat good - 21% (+4) Average - 39% (+8) Somewhat poor - 17%
(-1) Very poor - 16% (-9) Unsure - 2% (-1)
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of our latest polls, visit the SES website at http://www.sesresearch.com/.
Feel free to
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Cheers,Nik

Canadians overwhelmingly pick tough security measures over civil liberties
as terrorist attacks abroad fuel a climate of fear at home, a new poll has
found.

Niger's president played down the food crisis ravaging his desert country,
insisting yesterday that people in the impoverished West African country "look
well-fed."

In an interview with the British Broadcasting Corp., President Mamadou
Tandja acknowledged a devastating locust invasion last year and poor rains have
produced food shortages. But he said that was not unusual for his country or for
the entire Sahel region, a semi-desert scrubland that straddles the southern
edge of the Sahara desert.

"We are experiencing like all the countries in the Sahel a food crisis
due to the poor harvest and the locust attacks of 2004," Tandja told the BBC.

"The people of Niger look well-fed, as you can see."

TV networks have for weeks broadcast images of severely malnourished,
skeletal children in Niger, many too weak to brush flies from their faces.
Scores have died.

The United Nations says the combined effects of drought and crop-destroying locusts have left some 3.6 million people facing severe food shortages in Niger. Children are most at risk, with some 800,000 under the age of five who need to be fed urgently, the United Nations says.

Tandja said the reports of famine were "false propaganda" that had been
used by the United Nations, aid agencies and opposition parties for political
and economic gain.

"It is only by deception that such agencies receive funding," Tandja said.

Harper misses the bus
Conservative leader Stephen Harper took a short four-block ride on the King Street streetcar last week, part of a public relations campaign to convince voters in the Greater Toronto Area that he really does understand and care about the problems they face on a daily basis.
It's a hard sell, though, because Harper appears out of step with the real concerns
of voters in this region.
It was never more obvious than with his announcement, made just before he jumped on the streetcar, that, if elected, the Conservatives would introduce a 16 per cent tax break on fare passes for riders who use mass transit, such as streetcars, buses and GO Transit trains.
Under the plan, commuters who regularly ride TTC buses or streetcars would save $153 a year, based on an $80 monthly pass. GO riders would get rebates up to $485.
Harper contends his plan will increase ridership on mass transit, thus resulting in extra revenues for transit authorities to modernize and extend their systems.
At the same time, he argues the program will help the environment by reducing pollution caused by commuting cars. According to Harper, the plan is better than Kyoto, the climate control accord which the Conservatives would scrap because they say it is too costly and won't work.
Unfortunately for commuters and environmentalists, Harper's plan misses the
bus — or the streetcar — when it comes to actually improving mass transit or the
environment.
At its core, Harper's transit proposal is just another variation on standard onservative party fare, specifically that tax breaks are the answer to almost every problem.
What mass transit in Toronto and the 905 area needs is direct and continuing federal and provincial investments to buy and refurbish streetcars and buses, to extend subway service and expand GO Transit.
Increased, reliable service is what will attract new commuters to mass transit, and thus ease traffic congestion and reduce pollution.
It is highly unlikely that a single commuter in Toronto would switch from their car to a streetcar or bus because they might get a tax break amounting to barely 60
cents a day.
At the same time, Harper's plan would cost $400 million a year. He says the money would come out of funds originally set aside for the Kyoto climate change program.
That doesn't worry Harper, who denounced Ottawa's support of the Kyoto accord and said he will introduce his own plan to cut pollution.
Clearly, Harper doesn't "get" Toronto. Polls show voters in the GTA generally like the Kyoto accord.
Trying to bribe them with a small break for riding the bus or streetcar while refusing to give money to buy more buses or streetcars and at the same time gutting our international commitment on climate change is intellectually lazy.
What Harper needs to connect with GTA voters is both a realistic transit policy and an environmental program that provides real solutions and real money for real problems.