Justin Trudeau's attacks on Pierre Poilievre not working, poll suggests
The Abacus Data survey, provided exclusively to the Toronto Star, suggests a 19 point lead for the Conservatives over the governing Liberals, with the support of 43 per cent of those polled compared to 24 per cent.
By
Stephanie LevitzDeputy Ottawa Bureau Chief - 10 Feb 24
OTTAWA—Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberals keep taking punches at Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, but a new poll suggests they aren't landing.
The Abacus Data survey, provided exclusively to the Star, suggests a 19-point lead for the Conservatives over the governing Liberals, with the support of 43 per cent of those polled compared to 24 per cent.
The three-point jump for the Tories
since the last time Abacus surveyed comes as its latest poll shows the government's approval rating is down by four percentage points, with 59 per cent of respondents saying they disapprove of the job Trudeau's government is doing.
In the survey, Abacus sought to probe people’s perceptions of the Trudeau Liberals, putting five phrases to respondents to see which they thought best described the party — including whether the government is focused on the right priorities, listens to Canadians and is transparent and accountable. For each, more than 40 per cent said "not at all."
The poll surveyed 2,398 adults between Feb. 1 to 7. Online polls cannot be considered truly random, but a comparative random sample of this size would have a margin of error of plus or minus two percentage points 19 times out of 20.
"Overall, the results are not good and underscore just how challenging the environment is for this government and Mr. Trudeau," Abacus Data CEO David Coletto said.
From a cabinet retreat in late January through to the past week, the Trudeau Liberals have upped their attacks on Poilievre to tamp down his momentum with voters.
Just ahead of Abacus going into the field, Trudeau tried to link Poilievre to the right-wing rhetoric of U.S. TV host Tucker Carlson, and accused Poilievre of siding with apologists for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
After Alberta Premier Danielle Smith
unveiled policies to restrict medical options for transgender youth, Liberals castigated Poilievre for not speaking up against them, accusing him of being indifferent to the lives of kids.
Trudeau's team also tried to undercut Poilievre's accusations that the government is responsible for high grocery prices, pointing out that the firm of his chief adviser Jenni Byrne
has lobbied for Loblaws. The firm has lobbied for the grocery giant in Ontario but not specifically about food prices.
Poilievre and the Conservatives have been punching back. To the accusations on lobbying, they put together their own list of former and current members of Trudeau's inner circle who've also lobbied for the company.
They've blasted Trudeau for using transgender policies as a dangerous wedge issue, and also put the government on its backfoot over its main message for the last week — promised measures to
combat auto theft.
Just before the Liberals could unveil a new plan, Poilievre unveiled his own, forcing the Liberals on the defensive.
In an interview with Citytv on Friday, Trudeau sloughed off the current polling landscape for his party in general, pointing out the next election is still a year-and-a-half away.
"We were way behind in the polls before the 2015 election where I won a majority, we were way behind in the polls before the 2019 election. Polls go up and down," he said.
The Tories did, in the end, vote against an updated free trade deal with Ukraine — that vote is the reason Trudeau accused Poilievre of being a Putin apologist. Poilievre insists it is because of the carbon price reference in the deal, and his party still backs Ukraine.
While Trudeau brought that up too in the Citytv interview, signalling his party won't let that issue drop, Coletto said the risk for the Liberals in general is that no one is listening to Trudeau anymore.
"They can’t cut through because most people aren’t listening anymore to Trudeau and until they start spending money on direct-to-voter advertising, that will be the case,” he said.
"The fundamental problem facing the Liberals is not a popular Conservative leader they need to bring back to Earth. It’s their unpopular leader who the country is largely tired of."
Poll here:
Conservatives lead by 17 over Liberals in latest Abacus Data poll. - Abacus Data
January 11, 2024
From January 4 to 9, 2024, Abacus Data conducted a national survey of 1,500 adults exploring several topics related to Canadian politics and current events as part of
our regular national omnibus surveys.
Conservatives gain 4 points since mid-December and now lead by 17 over the Liberals.
If an election were held today, 41% of committed voters would vote Conservatives with the Liberals at 24%, the NDP at 18% and the Greens at 4%. The BQ is at 33% in Quebec.
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