Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently announced Bill C-78, a two-month GST/HST holiday on certain items like beer, wine, candy and kids’ clothing. There’s also a separate bill, which has yet to be passed, for $250 rebate cheques to millions of Canadians who earned less than $150,000 working in 2023.
Trudeau’s minority Liberal government was unsurprisingly able to get Bill C-78 passed in Parliament with NDP support. They’ve blasted the Conservatives and Bloc Québécois for opposing this measure, which will kick in on Dec. 14. In particular, they’ve targeted Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre for describing it as a “temporary two-month tax trick” and, in their minds, refusing to help out hard-working Canadians during the Christmas season and beyond.
Well, guess what? A majority of Canadians agree with Poilievre’s logical position and clever alliteration. Instead of shouting “ho ho ho!” during the holidays, many of them are saying “no no no!” to the Liberals’ plan for a short-term tax holiday.
A Leger/National Post poll on federal politics, the results of which were released today, included a special section on the GST holiday and rebate cheques. If you’ll excuse my alliteration, Trudeau’s temporary tax termination has neither tantalized nor tricked too many Canadians.
Only 12 per cent of poll respondents believed a temporary GST holiday “will help a lot,” while an additional 21 per cent suggested it “will help somewhat.” In contrast, 30 per cent responded that the GST holiday “will only help a little” and 35 per cent said it “won’t help at all.”
The reaction to the $250 cheque was even less enthusiastic. In this case, 12 per cent of respondents said it will help a lot, 18 per cent claimed it will help somewhat, 25 per cent believed it will only help a little and a whopping 42 per cent said it won’t help at all.
If you combine the two most positive responses, only a third of respondents suggested that the temporary GST holiday (32 per cent) and $250 cheque (30 per cent) will help them. That’s meagre enthusiasm at best for Trudeau’s meagre attempt to help Canadians and their families during the holidays.
The breakdown by voting intentions told an interesting story, too.
The Leger/National Post poll showed that Liberal supporters (50 per cent) and NDP supporters (42 per cent) felt the GST holiday will help a lot/somewhat. BQ supporters and People’s Party of Canada supporters were only at 20 per cent, followed by Conservative supporters at 21 per cent and Green Party supporters at 36 per cent.
When you focus on the combination of does not help/just a little, PPC supporters (80 per cent), BQ supporters (79 per cent) and Conservative supporters (77 per cent) were the highest three tallies. Green Party supporters were at 63 per cent, followed by NDP supporters at 56 per cent and Liberal supporters at 49 per cent.
What about the $250 cheque? There were some notable deviations. Only 41 per cent of Liberal supporters believed it will help a lot/somewhat, followed by Green Party supporters (40 per cent), NDP supporters (38 per cent), BQ supporters (22 per cent), Conservative supporters (21 per cent) and PPC supporters (13 per cent). With respect to does not help/just a little, PPC supporters were at a massive 87 per cent, followed by BQ and Conservative supporters tied at 77 per cent, NDP supporters at 59 per cent, Liberal supporters at 56 per cent and Green Party supporters at 52 per cent.
There are some fascinating results when you dig through the numbers.
Liberal and NDP supporters were predictably the biggest supporters of both measures, whereas the Conservatives, BQ and PPC supporters were the lowest. Overall enthusiasm for Liberal and NDP supporters was higher for the GST holiday than the $250 cheque, however. Even New Democrats, who historically love to spend money and get “free” handouts, took a measured tone with the rebate cheque, of all things. It’s also interesting to note that the combined “help a lot/somewhat” categories was below 50 per cent for all party supporters except the Liberals with the GST holiday. To put it another way, the enthusiasm of all respondents for these two measures, including Liberals, was muted.
With respect to shopping plans, 50 per cent said the GST holiday “will not change my holiday shopping timing.” In contrast, a total of 29 per cent will try to do “most” or “some” shopping after it kicks in on Dec. 14. This sentiment largely goes across the board from province to province, the urban-rural split, male-female ratio and different age groups. While Canadians aren’t opposed to saving money, the interest just isn’t there.
Here are three other things in this poll for the Liberals to chew on.
Fifty per cent of all respondents would have preferred a two-month holiday of the carbon tax over “temporary GST relief.” The Conservatives, in particular, have read the minds of Canadians far better than the Liberals. More than two-thirds of respondents (70 per cent) believed the GST holiday and $250 cheque “are only electoral measures to get people’s vote.” Many Canadians are clearly not fooled by Trudeau’s intentions. Finally, a massive 87 per cent said these measures will either “not change my likelihood in supporting” (65 per cent) or are “less likely” (22 per cent) to support Trudeau and the Liberals, as opposed to only eight per cent at “more likely.” The political bleeding won’t stop anytime soon.
Based on these findings, it appears many Canadians strongly agree with Poilievre’s description that this is a “temporary two-month tax trick.” Trudeau’s hocus-pocus is seemingly out of focus, and the GST holiday should take a holiday.
National Post