NDP leader’s approval rating rises, says poll

NDP leader Jagmeet Singh’s rising approval ratings are on the verge of threatening the Liberals in key battleground provinces, a new online national public opinion poll from Campaign Research suggests.

“Jagmeet Singh has caught fire!” Nick Kouvalis, principal of Campaign Research Inc., said in a release.

“He is on a trajectory to become the leader on the question of ‘who would make the best prime minister’ and no one knows, with any certainty, where or how far this could go at this point.”

“With 11 days left in the campaign, it is not out of the question that Jagmeet Singh and the NDP could again switch places with the Liberal Party of Canada as they did in 2011,” Kouvalis said.

“No one wants to be first to say Prime Minister Singh, but he may end up being the No. 1 choice for a plurality of Canadians in short order,” he said.

The online poll of 3,147 Canadians measured the change over the course of the election campaign in the job approval-disapproval ratings for all federal party leaders as well as who respondents thought would make the best prime minister.

The poll results suggest Jagmeet Singh is outperforming the other leaders with the best job approval rating of 49 per cent.

Singh’s job disapproval rating is also the lowest of the leaders, sitting at 22 per cent.

Respondents were also asked who would be the best prime minister.

One graph shows Singh with the largest jump, rising five per cent in the eight days between Oct. 2-10 for a total of 15 per cent.

All other leaders have experienced a dip during the same time period.

The results are indicative of the rise in popularity Singh has experienced, particularly since the English leaders’ debate.

The NDP leader’s approval ratings are high across the country, especially so in the battleground provinces of Ontario (52 per cent approve of Singh) and British Columbia (57 per cent approval), putting the Liberals back on their heels in those regions.