A majority of Canadians aren’t confident in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s ability to deal with inflation.
According to a Maru Public Opinion poll commissioned by Yahoo News, 55% of Canadians said they don’t believe Trudeau has a “solid plan” to weather the country through economic troubles.
Only 20% of those polled said that Trudeau has a “good plan” while 25% believed the prime minister was following a bad plan.
Views didn’t vary much when Canadians were asked the same questions about Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland.
55% of Canadians also believed that Freeland had no plan to bring ballooning prices down while only 21% believed she had a good plan. The remaining 24% believed Freeland had a specifically bad plan.
The poll surveyed a random selection of 1,515 Canadians over the age of 18. Results were weighted by education, age, gender and region. The poll has a margin of error of +/- 2.5%, 19 times out of 20.
When it came to the primary culprit 23% of respondents blamed “profit taking by companies and speculators” for current economic troubles.
Meanwhile 17% believed supply chain problems caused by the pandemic are behind inflationary woes. Another 16% said that the war in Ukraine was the most significant factor while 14% blamed price hikes following lockdowns.
“Compared to where Canadians were ten days ago when the same measure was applied, the impact of inflation on their ability to buy necessities for themselves and/or their family nowadays has increased the group who are “worried —inflation is causing some serious money issues” (59%, up to three points from 56% from ten days ago),” wrote pollsters.
“This compares with fewer Canadians who are “comfortable—inflation is not really having an impact” (28%, down three points from 31% from ten days ago).”
During the first signs of inflationary troubles, Trudeau told reporters last year that he didn’t worry about “monetary policy.”
“When I think about the biggest, most important economic policy this government, if re-elected, would move forward, you’ll forgive me if I don’t think about monetary policy,” said Trudeau in 2021.
