By Shachi Kurl, President
May 10, 2024 – If, in the last year, you looked at all three of Canada’s major federal party leaders and said, “none of the above, please,” you’d be far from alone. In an admirable bit of trawling through 50 years of public opinion data, recent analysis from the Angus Reid Institute shows it’s not just a feeling. One very long trend line indicates Canadians have never been as critical of all three major federal party leaders at the same time as they are now.
Yes, there have been very unpopular leaders over the generations. But in the days of Trudeau, Stanfield, and Lewis, for every unpopular leader, there was at least one (or two) who had more fans than detractors. All the way back to 1974. Until now.
For the first time in 50 years, Canada’s “big three” federal party leaders are all well below surface in approval and favourability. They still have people who like them, and more crucially, who would vote for them, but for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre, and NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, more are turned off by each leader than turned on.
Since the release of these data, politicos in various party camps have blamed each other for the deterioration of political discourse that’s led to this moment. This would be less embarrassing if they weren’t also simultaneously sending fundraising emails to carefully curated party lists, based on outrageous things their leaders say in the House of Commons.
Read more from the article in the Ottawa Citizen here.
Image Credit – Photo by Shubham Sharan on Unsplash