According to Senior Vice-President Doug Anderson “It appears about half of all Canadians are receptive to the idea of some form of co-operation between the Liberal Party and the NDP. However, at this point in time, there is no consensus view on how that should work and those who want the two parties to work together prefer that it mean ‘co-operation’ rather than a ‘coalition’ or ‘merger.’”

Respondents were asked which of the following four options they preferred the NDP and Liberals take in regards to working together

• Forming a Parliamentary coalition after the next election in an attempt to form a government
• A merger between the two parties in advance of the next election
• An agreement on cooperation that would see them exist as separate parties, but where they would not run candidates against each other in ridings where one of them was contending to win
• Not cooperate at all
• Nationally, 14% thought forming a Parliamentary coalition after the next election in an attempt to form a government was the best route to take. Support for this idea is higher than average among residents of Quebec (19%), Liberals (21%), New Democrats (21%), Greens (17%) and supporters of the BQ (25%).
• A merger between the two parties in advance of the next election has the support of 13%. Support for this idea garners more support than average among those in Manitoba and Saskatchewan (18%), Greens (25%), New Democrats (16%), and those with household incomes exceeding $100k/year (17%).
• An agreement on cooperation that would see them exist as separate parties, but where they would not run candidates against each other in ridings where one of them was contending to win garners the most support among the cooperation options, with 28% believing this is the option the two parties should take. Support for this idea is most pronounced in Atlantic Canada (31%), Manitoba and Saskatchewan (34%), among those under the age of 35 (31%), Liberals (35%), New Democrats (40%), Greens (32%), women (33%), and those with household incomes below $60k/year (31%).
• Three in ten Canadians (30%) prefer that the two parties not cooperate at all. Residents of Alberta (39%), those over the age of 50 (34%), Conservatives (50%) and men (35%) are more likely than average to pick this option.

Each week, Harris/Decima interviews just over 1000 Canadians through teleVox, the company’s national telephone omnibus survey. These data were gathered between June 3 and June 6 2010. A sample of the same size has a margin of error of 3.1%, 19 times out of 20.