The Conservative Leader is perceived more positively than the Liberal Leader on most key attributes.
Incumbency is a huge advantage in politics.
If you’re already the Prime Minister and have won at least one election, it signals that voters were willing to put you and your party in a position of power. And those voters have then seen you exercise that power. This becomes the ‘new normal,’ and people tend to stick with what they know unless given a really good reason to make a change.
Another way to put it is that there is an inertia to power.
So, when a Prime Minister begins to trail the Opposition Leader in multiple polls over a long period of time, it’s a sign that people are getting ready to overcome that inertia and move in a different direction. And when a Prime Minister starts to trail on questions surrounding key leadership attributes, it’s a sign that much of the desire for a new direction relates to a growing animus towards those in power.
With that in mind, a new survey by Abacus Data is great news for Pierre Poilievre, and terrible news for Justin Trudeau.
The survey asked Canadians what they think of Trudeau & Poilievre, specifically whether they see each leader as possessing key attributes.
Here are the results:
47% of voters say Trudeau is competent, while 59% say Poilievre is competent.
40% say Trudeau has good judgement, while 55% say Poilievre has good judgement.
64% say Trudeau is kind, while 54% say Poilievre is kind.
39% say Trudeau is too extreme, while 53% say Poilievre is too extreme.
46% say Trudeau represents Canadian values well, while 53% say Poilievre represents Canadian values well.
51% say Trudeau genuinely cares about making Canada better, while 59% say Poilievre genuinely cares about making Canada better.
62% say Trudeau hides his true views to make him more acceptable, while 50% say Poilievre hides his true views to make him more acceptable.
And 32% say Trudeau understands what life is like for people like you, while 47% say Poilievre understands what life is like for people like you.
Out of eight questions, six focus on positive attributes, while two focus on negative attributes.
On positive attributes, Poilievre leads on five out of six, with Trudeau ahead only on the question of who is “kind.”
On negative attributes, Trudeau & Poilievre are split. Trudeau ‘leads’ on who hides their views, which is a negative for Trudeau, while Poilievre ‘leads’ on who is more extreme, which is a negative for Poilievre.
Thus, Poilievre receives more positive responses on six out of eight attribute questions, while Trudeau receives more positive responses on two out of eight.
The questions on which Trudeau trails – and the margin by which he trails – should be disconcerting for the Liberals.
Trudeau trails Poilievre by double digits on the question of competence, judgement, and understanding what life is like for Canadians. Those are brutal numbers for someone who is already in office.
Meanwhile, these are great numbers for Poilievre and for every Canadian who wants to see Trudeau defeated. A majority of Canadians have looked at both Poilievre and Trudeau, and now see Poilievre as possessing more of the attributes of a national leader than Trudeau.
While the election is still potentially quite a ways off, Pierre Poilievre remains well-positioned to put an end to the collectivist herd-mentality of Justin Trudeau’s Liberals, a mentality that has been stifling the greatest among us and holding our nation back.
Spencer Fernando
Photo – YouTube
