Trudeau leads Poilievre for preferred prime minister, Nanos poll finds

Justin Trudeau is the preferred choice for prime minister over Pierre Poilievre, according to a new Nanos Research poll, although a significant portion of Canadians have nothing good to say about either leader.

If only Mr. Trudeau and Mr. Poilievre were on the ballot, 46% of poll respondents said they would prefer the current prime minister, compared to 30% who favored the Conservative leader. However, a significant number of respondents, 19%, also did not want to lead the country, and 5% were unsure.

The survey can be boiled down to “not ‘who do I like’, but ‘who do I dislike the least,'” Nanos Research founder Nik Nanos said in an interview on Sunday.

“Canadians are not enthusiastic about the two main choices on the political menu.

Nanos said polls show the incumbent has the advantage in these types of survey questions because he already has the job and is a better-known commodity.

Mr. Trudeau far outstripped Mr. Poilievre in favor of women, 52% to 22%. The two leaders were evenly split in preference among men, with 39% favoring Mr. Trudeau, compared to 38% for Mr. Poilievre.

The poll was taken between September 30 and October 3, just three weeks after Mr Poilievre won the Tory leadership race in a landslide first-round victory.

The victory also made him leader of the Official Opposition, and since taking office Mr Poilievre has continued the attack policy for which he is known. In the House of Commons, he hammered Trudeau on economic policy, including inflation and the Liberal government’s deficit spending.

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So far, his approach has not won him over to voters. When asked to identify Mr. Poilievre’s positive attributes, four in 10 (41%) survey respondents said they had nothing positive to say about Mr. Poilievre. Six percent of respondents said he stood up for Canadians, the same proportion said he was a good speaker and 5 percent said he was smart. Another 5 percent said they didn’t know him.

The most common response from participants when asked to name Mr. Trudeau’s positive traits was also nothing. Three in 10 people (31%) gave this answer. A further 12% of respondents praised its response to the pandemic, and the same percentage highlighted its social policies. Eight percent said he represented Canada well on the international stage.

Respondents were asked an open-ended question about the negative and positive attributes of the two leaders; similar responses were then compiled into different categories.

The most common response when asked to identify Mr. Trudeau’s negative traits was overspending, which was identified as a problem by 16% of respondents. Other negative attributes included being out of touch or untrustworthy, having ethical controversies, and being arrogant. Eight percent of respondents said they had nothing negative to say about Mr. Trudeau.

For Poilievre, the most frequently mentioned negative trait is that he is too right wing, a concern raised by 22% of respondents. Others have included his support for truck convoys, being divisive or abrasive, and being similar to former US President Donald Trump. Thirteen percent of respondents said they had nothing negative to say about Mr. Poilievre.

The poll also shows the Tory leader is vulnerable to attacks that he is right-wing. This issue was highlighted last week after a Global News report published after the Nanos investigation was completed.

Mr. Poilievre has come under fire for the story that his office tagged his YouTube videos with a hashtag that promoted his posts with people who followed the misogynist movement, Men Going Their Own Way. The group is made up of anti-feminists who try to exclude women from their lives.

Global News reported that the hidden tag had been used in hundreds of videos dating back to 2018, but was removed after the outlet sought comment from Mr. Poilievre’s office.

The Tory leader told the House of Commons he ‘took responsibility and fixed’ the issue as soon as he was made aware of the beacons. However, he did not specify what action he has taken and his office did not respond to questions from The Globe and Mail on Thursday.

Nanos said Poilievre’s response to the controversy so far has been insufficient and that he needs to make his views clear to Canadians.

“He has to deal with that so it doesn’t distract him from his main message,” Nanos said.

The prime minister’s favorite question had 1,037 respondents, and the number of respondents to the questions about the positive and negative attributes of leaders ranged from 923 to 957 people. The hybrid survey was conducted by telephone and online. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.1 to 3.2 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.