OTTAWA - Jim Flaherty's taxpayer-friendly mini-budget comes as Canadians are feeling happier with the economy than ever before -- but less likely to vote Conservative than they were last year.
A new Harris/Decima survey suggests the Tories have gotten no political bounce yet from the strength of the Canadian economy since they took office in 2006.
The finance minister was taking some credit for that economic robustness Tuesday.
"Good economic management by this government has made us all strong today,'' Flaherty declared.
"Like the North Star, we are a bright light for others to follow.''
But new public-opinion data suggests voters are still resistant to supporting his government.
Harris/Decima placed the Tories at 33 per cent in overall support -- three points lower than in the last election, down slightly from earlier this month, but still four points ahead of the Liberals.
Those stagnant numbers fly in the face of a separate Harris/Decima survey that suggests the state of satisfaction with the economy has reached historic levels.
An overwhelming majority of respondents -- 82 per cent -- characterized the economy as excellent or good while only 17 per cent described it as fair or poor.
Pollster Bruce Anderson says he's been polling since 1980 and has never seen such optimism about the economy.
"We can't recall seeing a situation like this,'' the Harris/Decima president said in an interview.
General satisfaction with the country's overall direction was also extremely high -- 61 per cent of respondents said they were pleased with where Canada was headed, compared with just 38 per cent who weren't.
Anderson said overall satisfaction numbers are usually a good indicator of whether people want to change the government -- and are often a harbinger of what might happen in an election.
"But those (satisfaction) numbers are substantially higher than the 33 per cent who say they'd vote Conservative. And (the Tories) . . . have remained in that range, bouncing up and down a little bit, for a protracted period of time.''
The economic-satisfaction numbers were drawn from an online poll of 2,044 respondents, conducted from Oct. 19 to 28. They have a margin of error of two percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
The political poll of 1,000 respondents was conducted by telephone from Oct. 25 to 29 and has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
That poll pegs the Conservatives at 33 per cent, the Liberals at 29, the NDP at 17 per cent, and the Green party at 10.
It suggests the Bloc Quebecois has increased its lead in Quebec to seven percentage points while the Tories have dipped slightly.
The Quebec numbers place the Bloc at 36 per cent, the Tories at 21 per cent, the Liberals at 19, and the NDP at 13.
Anderson says the lethargic poll numbers could be cause for some concern for Tories hoping to capitalize from the country's good economic fortunes.
But he offered several explanations for why the numbers haven't moved.
The first is that governments don't necessarily deserve -- or get -- credit for a solid economy. Just last year, the scandal-plagued Liberals were turfed from office when unemployment was already at a 30-year low.
The second is that Canadians pay little attention to politics in a non-campaign period while they think about economic realities almost every day. That will change in an election campaign.
Anderson says voters have seen and heard relatively little from Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and even less from his opponents, but would be paying far closer attention during an election.
So Harper can take solace in one thing -- even if he'd prefer to see better poll numbers right now.
"You're sitting on the best set of fundamentals as any government ever has heading into an election,'' Anderson said.
