A Toronto-based public affairs company has some advice for Stephen Harper's government if it wishes to stay on the good side of Canadians.

On the promises front, the study by the firm Navigator Limited found Canadians want the Conservatives to:

• Work to clean up government,
• Cut the GST,
• Implement the child care allowance, and
• Implement wait time guarantees for health care

And if Harper and his 124 members want to for a second government, they should avoid:

• Any scandal, no matter how trivial,
• Acting presidential, like other politicians, and
• Becoming a Bush poodle

"Who we talked to were Canadians who voted Conservative this time but didn't vote Conservative in the last election," Jaime Watt of Navigator Limited told CTV Newsnet on Monday.

"These people voted for Stephen Harper for a number of reasons. One, they wanted a government that's different. Two, they wanted integrity to be restored back to the operations of government. Three, they liked his promise to cut the GST, and they liked his promise on child care, and they were hoping he would move forward and do something on the wait list times, with the help of the health ministers across the country."

Voters thought Harper shared their values, he said. "They saw that he was a dad, he was a husband, he was hard-working. They hoped that that would translate into the values that he held and the values by which he would govern."

They saw him as a non-politician, he said.

When Harper unveiled his new cabinet, it came with two controversial surprises: David Emerson, the former Liberal industry minister who was re-elected in the Jan. 23 federal election, and Michael Fortier, who didn't even run in the election.

Harper recruited Emerson to cross the floor, and he appointed Fortier to the Senate and then to cabinet. The Conservatives have called for senators to be elected.

The Conservatives didn't elect one MP in either Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver. Emerson represents the Vancouver Kingsway riding, while Fortier is from Montreal.

"One of the things Canadians were looking at was they wanted to see this government do things differently," Watt said.

Some of the research indicated that people understood the constraints imposed on Harper by his minority government status, but essentially, people will have to wait and see how this plays out, he said.

"They may see it the way the prime minister is positioning it; that he had a need to reach out to different regions of the country," Watt said.

Unlike the legendary floor-crossing by Belinda Stronach in May (she abandoned the Tories on the eve of a non-confidence vote but won re-election as a Liberal), the timing may have a different impact on peoples' perceptions, he said.

The Navigator study was based on focus groups conducted in the aftermath of the vote. A total of eight were held, interviewing 72 people in Vancouver, Halifax, Quebec City and Toronto.