Trudeau’s Liberal Party, Jagmeet Singh-led NDP face falling voter confidence: Poll

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party and its ally Jagmeet Singh-led New Democratic Party or NDP are losing the confidence of the country’s voters, raising doubts about Trudeau’s leadership ahead of next year’s general election, according to a poll.

According to a Hindustan Times report, citing a Leger poll for the National Post, the support for NDP will suffer a dip of one percentage point, down from 18 per cent during the 2021 Federal elections to 17 per cent, if the polls were to be held today.

Significantly, more of the those sampled felt their impression of the NDP and Singh had ‘worsened’, as only 20 per cent viewed them more favourably as against 32 per cent earlier.

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The NDP faced troubling signs during the June Federal by-election in Toronto-St. Paul’s, where its vote share declined from 17 per cent to 11 per cent, marking a catastrophic outcome for Trudeau’s party, which lost a seat it had held since 1993.

Singh took over leadership of the NDP in October 2017. Before his leadership, the NDP held 44 seats in the House of Commons and nearly 20 per cent of the vote share in the previous federal election.

By 2021, these numbers had significantly decreased, with the NDP electing 25 MPs and holding approximately 18 per cent of the vote share.

“We look at this as a message that people are sending. They are frustrated with Trudeau. They’re done with Trudeau, and they are frustrated with the Liberal party, and they’ve got reasons to,” said Singh last week.

However, the minority Trudeau Government is surviving with the support of the NDP, after they entered into a “supply and confidence agreement” in March 2022.

While Singh is silent on whether he will continue to back Trudeau, he said things for the government are getting worse.

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“We hear this again and again: things are getting worse, not better. The Liberals have had nine years to make improvements, and they haven’t," he said.

As per the overall figures from the Leger poll, the Conservative Party has 41 per cent support, far ahead of the Liberals, who are at 27 per cent. If elections were held now, the Conservatives would secure 218 seats, as against just 67 for the incumbent.

Trudeau’s party recently suffered a major upset in a special election for a Toronto district it has held for three decades.

Opposition Conservative candidate Don Stewart won the Toronto-St. Paul’s district by almost 600 votes, 42.1 per cent over the Liberal candidate’s 40.5 per cent.

“This was obviously not the result we wanted, but I want to be clear that I hear the concerns and frustrations,” Associated Press quoted Trudeau as saying in Vancouver.

“These are not easy times. And it is clear, that I and my entire Liberal team, have much more hard work to do to deliver tangible, real progress that Canadians can see and feel,” he added.

The Liberals had held Toronto-St. Paul’s since 1993. It is one of 338 seats in Canada’s House of Commons.

Losing in Canada’s largest city, a traditional Liberal stronghold, does not bode well for Trudeau ahead of the election expected in the fall of 2025.

Trudeau has said he intends to lead the party into the next election. The Liberals have been in power since 2015 but are trailing badly in the polls amid concerns over the cost of living.

With inputs from agencies