A new poll finds more Canadians still believe Justin Trudeau is the best person to serve as the country’s prime minister, but the Liberal leader only has a slight lead over new Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre.
The Léger firm has published the results of a survey conducted online last weekend with approximately 1,500 respondents.
The results indicate that the Liberals’ popularity has waned since a year ago, when Mr. Trudeau was re-elected for the second time, but at the head of a minority government.
About 28% of respondents said they would vote for the Liberals if an election were held today, but this proportion was up to almost 33% in September 2021. Thus, the results suggest that some Liberal supporters are likely to change of field.
The Conservative Party comes first with 34% of voting intentions among respondents in this latest survey. In November 2021, just after the last federal election, the party garnered 26% support in the Léger poll.
The New Democratic Party (NDP) also made gains compared to last year, according to the results of this poll. The formation collects 23% of the voting intentions, an increase compared to the nearly 18% recorded during the last election.
Three percent of respondents opted for the Green Party and another three percent would choose the People’s Party of Canada (PPC). Voting intentions among the Greens thus remain relatively stable, while it is a decline of two percentage points compared to the results of the election for the PPC.
However, even if the voting intentions are in favor of the Conservatives, respondents to the poll more often said that Mr. Trudeau would still make the best prime minister, ahead of Mr. Poilievre and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh.
When asked which of the federal political party leaders would make the best prime minister, 24% of respondents chose Mr. Trudeau, three points ahead of Mr. Poilievre and seven points ahead of Mr. Singh.
This new poll comes 10 days after the convincing election of Mr. Poilievre as leader of the Conservatives. Many party members hope that this changing of the guard will signal the start of a new, more unified era for the party.
As for regional breakdowns, the poll suggests support for Poilievre is lowest in Quebec and highest in Alberta. As for Mr. Trudeau, he has a lot of support in Atlantic Canada, but little in Alberta.
Ontario, however, promises to be a battlefield to watch, since 34% of respondents in this province say they want a Conservative government led by Mr. Poilievre, against 32% for a Liberal government of Mr. Trudeau.
In Quebec, the Liberals (28%) are still ahead of the Conservatives (25%), but it is the Bloc Québécois that has the most support (34%).
It is not possible to assign a margin of error, since online surveys are not considered random samples.