The majority of Canadians say Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is a divisive leader and many want him to resign, according to a new Postmedia-Leger poll.
“His personal popularity with NDP and Green voters is poor, which leads one to question his ability to win another election, certainly difficult to see him ever winning a majority,” Leger executive vice-president Andrew Enns told Postmedia.
As reported by the National Post, the poll saw 32% of respondents say they strongly disapprove of Trudeau’s performance, and 23% say they somewhat disapprove, for a total disapproval rating of 55%.
Almost half of those surveyed (49%) want Trudeau to resign as Liberal Party leader before the next election, while 30% want him to stay on.
Over 60% find Trudeau divisive, agreeing that he “often favours certain groups and regions of the country over others, which has created national unity issues.”
Forty-four percent of respondents believe Canada has become a worse place to live, work and raise a family under Trudeau’s leadership, while only 17% said Canada has become a better place.
Trudeau is the least popular in British Columbia, Manitoba and Saskatchewan, with 60% of people in those provinces saying they dislike him. He is also disliked by 58% of those in Alberta and Quebec.
Meanwhile, only 7% said they strongly approve of Trudeau’s performance as prime minister. Thirty-three percent said they somewhat approved of the prime minister, for a total approval rating of 40%.
Sixteen percent of respondents say the prime minister’s greatest accomplishment was the legalization of marijuana, while only 15% said it was his pandemic management.
Seventeen percent of people surveyed said issues with Trudeau’s integrity were his biggest deception as Prime Minister. Trudeau has been embroiled in multiple scandals including the Aga Khan, SNC Lavalin and WE charity controversies.
Trudeau is currently entangled in yet another scandal amid allegations that the Trudeau government used the Nova Scotia mass shooting to implement its gun control measures.
Respondents also named Trudeau’s broken promises (11%) and the invocation of the Emergencies Act to crack down on peaceful Freedom Convoy demonstrations (6%) as some of their biggest disappointments.
Trudeau was elected in 2015 after running a campaign of optimism.
“We beat fear with hope. We beat cynicism with hard work. We beat negative, divisive politics with a positive vision that brings Canadians together,” said Trudeau in 2015.
However, things have since changed. In the 2021 election, despite winning, Trudeau became the prime minister with the smallest share of overall electoral support in Canadian history. The Liberal leader won only 32.3% of the popular vote, meaning 67.8% of Canadians did not vote for Trudeau.
Throughout the pandemic, the Prime Minister demonized and vilified Canadians who had chosen not to get vaccinated or disclose their vaccine status, referring to them as racist and misogynistic.
Trudeau now often faces freedom protests in Ottawa and when he travels across the country. He has previously called Freedom Convoy supporters a “small fringe minority” who hold “unacceptable views” as well as “tinfoil hats.”
Despite the unfavourable polling numbers, Trudeau could stay in power without facing an election until October 2025, due to a coalition with Jagmeet Singh and the New Democratic Party.
