From out west to Atlantic Canada, most Canadians would like to see Prime Minister Justin Trudeau step down.
Ipsos polling asked Canadians ahead of the House of Commons summer break whether or not they would like to see Trudeau return in the fall, and 68% of respondents said it was time for him to resign.
That sentiment was felt highest in Alberta (79%) and Atlantic Canada (76%).
“This is as bad as we’ve seen it for Trudeau. It’s close to rock bottom,” Ipsos CEO Darrell Bricker told Global News, who requested the poll.
Ipsos conducted the poll between June 12 and 14, speaking with 1,001 Canadians about what an election outcome might look like if it were held tomorrow.
Respondents revealed that the Conservatives would snag a “comfortable victory” with 42% of the decided vote.
The Liberals came in second, but with nearly half the support at 24% and the NDP trailed behind at 18%.
While the poll revealed that Trudeau may be single-handedly “dragging the success of his party down with him,” the opposite proved true for Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre.
Poilievre’s popularity “has grown his lead even ahead of his own party,” said Ipsos, with almost half of Canadians (44%) saying he would make the best prime minister.
Another cohort of 75% said they want to see another party take power regardless of who they are, while only 25% said that the Liberals “deserve reelection.”
“What’s worse is that they have thrown everything they can think of at changing this dynamic,” said Bricker. “Nothing has worked. It’s frozen in solid.”
Yet Trudeau himself dismissed the opinion of the vast majority of Canadians, telling CBC’s David Cochrane in an interview that they weren’t in “decision mode right now.”
The sentiment appears to be championed by the prime minister’s inner circle as well, with Trudeau’s Treasury Board President Anita Anand telling reporters to look at his policy achievements, not public opinion.
“We’re not focused on the polls. We’re focused on the fact that we need to continue to put forward dental care, pharmacare, housing supports, supports for families and students,” Anand said on her way into cabinet Tuesday.
Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland responded to plummeting poll numbers with similar messaging.
“This is a really, really challenging time in the world, in the global economy,” Freeland told reporters on Tuesday. “We’re the people right now whose job it is to help steer our country through this.”
Freeland’s answer echoed that of Trudeau’s from his CBC interview days before, when asked whether or not he bore any responsibility for the angry mood of the country.
“Everywhere, people are struggling,” responded Trudeau, before saying “we are doing better than most countries.”
However, some Liberal backbenchers appear more in tune with the majority of Canadians.
Liberal MP for Charlottetown Sean Casey was also asked on Tuesday whether his party can change course for the better before an election.
“I don’t know,” said Casey, “We’re doing good things. It seems as though the electorate has tuned out. I don’t know what we can do except to continue to do good things.”
While the next federal election won’t be until October 2025, the riding of Toronto–St. Paul’s is slated for a byelection next week.
It’s been a Liberal stronghold since the 1990s, however, for the first time in nearly 30 years the Liberals are at risk of losing a key political battleground.
According to the latest 338Canada poll, the Liberals are projected to win the riding, but they are only ahead of the Conservatives by a small margin, who have steadily been gaining favourability in Toronto – St. Paul’s since 2019.
