OTTAWA — As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ponders his future while skiing in the Kootenays, one polling firm is reporting historically low levels of support for the governing Liberals.
Numbers released Monday by Angus Reid shows support for Trudeau’s Liberals at just 16% of decided and leaning voters.
“It represents the lowest level of support for the party in Angus Reid Institute tracking dating back to 2014,” read the institute’s report.
“It is also quite possibly the lowest vote intention the Liberals have ever received in the modern era.”
Monday’s numbers rival those leading up to the 2011 election — the party’s worst performance since its 1867 founding — which saw then-party leader Michael Ignatieff rack up lows of 17% support in pre-ballot polling.
Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives, meanwhile, now enjoy 45% support among decided and leaning voters, with the Jagmeet Singh-led NDP coming in second at 21%.
Support for the Liberals currently ranks about half of what it was before the 2021 federal election, with many of those supporters now choosing to put their support elsewhere.
Only 41% of those who voted Liberal in 2021 intend to vote the same way, with 20% shifting their allegiances to the NDP, 16% to the Tories, and 12% undecided.
Conversely, 89% of 2021 Conservative voters intend to stay with their party, as will 83% of the Bloc Quebecois’ suppoters, and 68% of those who cast ballots for the NDP.
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Forty-six per cent want Trudeau to step down as Liberal leader immediately in the new year and trigger a leadership contest, while 38% said they wanted the PM to immediately dissolve Parliament and call a February election. Some supporters –16% — want him to stay in power for as long as possible.
Approval ratings for Trudeau himself likewise plummeted to new lows, with 74% of respondents expressing disapproval of him as prime minister.
Negative impressions of Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre remain unchanged at 55% — only dipping below 50% once since September 2022 — while NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh’s disapproval rating remains at an all-time high, 58%.
“The dynamics of the House of Commons changed in September when Singh ‘ripped up’ the supply and confidence agreement between the NDP and the Liberals, but until recently, Singh and the NDP had kept the minority Liberal government in power and out of an election by refusing to vote against the Liberals on confidence matters,” the report read.
“Even in the days after Freeland’s resignation, Singh called for Trudeau to resign but did not commit to joining a vote with the other opposition parties to bring the government down.”
Across Canada, support for the Conservatives saw a big boost in British Columbia, increasing by 10 points to 54%.
Support for the Tories is highest in Saskatchewan with 67% of the intended vote, followed by Alberta (61%,) BC (54%,) Manitoba (52%,) Ontario (48%,) Atlantic Canada (44%) and Quebec (24%.)
The poll of 2,261 members of the Angus Reid Forum was conducted Dec. 27-30. As margins of error cannot be applied to online panels, an equivalent probably sample would yield a margin of error of 2%, 19 times out of 20.
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