Polls show voters want Tories and Libs to shape up, shift leaders
With neither party showing they'll switch leaders, Canadians might find themselves picking between the lesser evil instead of the greater good
The latest Nanos political polling is not good news for either Justin Trudeau or Pierre Poilievre.
Just over half of Canadians would like to see Trudeau and Poilievre replaced as leaders of their respective parties before the next election.
That’s a pretty strong indicator that frustrated Canadians are being underwhelmed by the performance of both leaders as we suffer through one of the most difficult economic circumstances in recent history.
The low support for the prime minister is no surprise: we’ve seen his popularity numbers steadily decline for years now, which traditionally happens to the longer PMs hold office.
Of course, some of Trudeau’s behaviors have probably accelerated that process.
Poilievre, on the other hand, has only been on the job (and under the microscope) for less than a year, but the trend seems to indicate that the more Canadians get to know him, the less they like him; his likeability rating has declined significantly in the last few months.
Though we should be careful not to read too much into these numbers.
Trudeau had similar low polling numbers in the past three elections, but he ended up forming a government each time. After all, in 2006, Canadian voters didn’t feel warm and fuzzy about Stephen Harper, but they still chose him to take a turn at the top job.
The frustrating takeaway from this poll is two-fold: we’re not please with either leader’s performance to date, and unfortunately, neither one of them is going away anytime soon.