Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff just can't buy a break.

This past week, a QMI Agency poll reported that Canadians think he has a worse personality than Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Slightly more (41 percent to 40 percent) felt Ignatieff was more condescending.

Only 12 percent thought Ignatieff was in tune with Canadians, compared to 28 percent for Harper.

Nearly a third felt that Harper is "responsible", whereas only 18 percent of respondents used this term to describe the Liberal leader.

Harper was gauged to be slightly more hypocritical and opportunistic, but Ignatieff lagged far behind in determination, bravery, and confidence.

More respondents (45 percent to 41 percent) concluded that Harper is smarter than the Opposition leader.

This isn't Ignatieff's only problem.

He's also cursed by the Liberal brand, which is in a sorry state in two of Canada's three largest provinces.

A Leger Marketing poll in May suggested that the Quebec Liberals, who are reeling with scandals under Jean Charest, would be thrown out of office if an election were held.

In B.C., the Liberals under Gordon Campbell have been pummelled in the opinion polls after introducing a harmonized sales tax with no public consultation.

Things aren't quite as bad for the Liberals in Ontario, where the provincial governing party held a five-point lead over the Conservatives in June, according to an Ipsos poll. This was reported less than two weeks before the introduction of the HST in that province.

Back in 1993 when Jean Chretien was running for prime minister, the NDP was in power in both B.C. and Ontario.

Support for the federal NDP seriously suffered as a result, helping the Liberals take more federal seats and form a majority government.

By the 1997 and 2000 elections, there were no Liberal governments in any of the three largest provinces.

The federal Conservatives were hamstrung in Ontario, thanks to the harsh and sometimes brutal actions of the Mike Harris provincial government.

The NDP's growing unpopularity in B.C. in the late 1990s tarnished its federal counterparts. And the Parti Quebecois was governing Quebec.

Chretien didn't have to wear any of the sins of the three largest provincial governments on the federal campaign trail, and breezed to two more majority governments.

Ignatieff, on the other hand, leads the federal Liberals when provincial Liberal governments are showing signs of age in Quebec, Ontario, and B.C.

Charest and Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty have each ruled since 2003. Campbell was elected in 2001.

Voters are suffering from Gordo fatigue in this province, and the same phenomenon is likely to occur with the Liberal premiers in the two largest provinces.

It would be naive to think that this is not a factor behind the federal Liberals' poor polling results.

Earlier this month, Ipsos had the Liberals running six points behind the Conservatives. Ekos had even worse numbers, putting the Liberals 10.5 points behind as of July 6.

Even though the provincial parties are separate entities from the federal Liberal party, voters don't always make that distinction.

That spells bad news for Ignatieff if a federal election is held before any of these provincial Liberal governments are defeated.

Follow Charlie Smith on Twitter at twitter.com/csmithstraight.