Trudeau's Troubles: the latest polling shows most Canadians want him to resign
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has had a difficult few weeks. However, the sudden resignation of his closest political ally and its disastrous fallout has not had a major impact on how Canadians intended to vote during the next election.
The latest polling data from the Canadian market research firm Leger found that a large portion of Canadians still plan to vote for The Conservative Party (43%) while 20% would cast their ballot for the Prime Minister's Liberal Party and 19% for the New Democratic Party (NDP).
According to the new Leger survey, Trudeau’s recent scandals haven’t hurt him with voters, but the right-leaning National Post pointed out that the lack of effect on the Canadian electorate is mostly due to the fact that Trudeau’s support is near the lowest point it's ever been.
Leger found nearly three-quarters (72%) of the Canadians that it surveyed between December 20th and the 22nd reported they were dissatisfied with Justin Trudeau’s government according to the market research firm.
“This represents an increase of three points compared to the previous measurement,” Leger wrote in a report on its latest survey. However, this finding wasn’t the worst that Leger discovered with its latest research.
Trudeau is now ranked third among party leaders in Canada with support from just 13% of Canadians. Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre ranked first with 31% of support and NDP leader Jagmeet Singh ranked second with 13% support.
The most dire finding Leger made was that seven in ten Canadians (69%) think that it's time for Trudeau to resign so that someone else can lead the Liberal Party into the next federal election, which was a major increase from previous findings.
“This marks a seven-point increase compared to September 2024, the last time the question was asked,” Leger noted. 88% of Conservatives said that Trudeau should resign while 33% of Liberals said the same.
“In a late June 2024 Leger poll, 26% of Liberal voters said Justin Trudeau should not lead the Party in the next election (i.e., resign). 7-points less than what this poll found,” Leger noted before offering up the candidates Canadians most preferred to take over the party based on their current support.
Trudeau’s former closest political ally, the now-resigned Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland led the pack of possible Trudeau replacements with 15% of support, followed closely by a slew of other individuals.
Former Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney held the second spot with 7% support while Dominic LeBlanc and Mélanie Joly were tied for third at 4%. However, whether or not Trudeau will step down has yet to be seen.
Calls have come from every side of the political aisle for the embattled Trudeau to step down as leader of the Liberal Party, but as of December 25th, Trudeau’s most recent address to Canadians, his Christmas message, didn’t indicate what he planned to do.