Scandals during the campaign? Who cares?
The election wasn’t about Justin Trudeau’s blackface, Andrew Scheer’s employment history, or any of the other scandals that blew up during the campaign. It wasn’t even about the issues. On voting day, it all came down to brand loyalty. “Not many voters were moved by what happened in the election. I think it was an election that did not have a huge issues focus,” said Craig Worden, president of Pollara Strategic Insights who conducted the survey for Clean Energy Canada, a Vancouver-based think-tank focused on the transition to renewable energy. “There was a bit of ADD to this election,” he said. Here are the figures that tell the tale of the election.
WHAT DECIDED THE ELECTION
The results suggest this election was decided more by leader preference and party brand than by any particular issue.
❚ 30% — wanted their party to form a majority government
❚ 21% — didn’t want another party to form government
❚ 18% — wanted their party to have influence in a minority government
❚ 12% — voted for a specific platform or policy promise
❚ 11% — wanted their party’s leader to be prime minister
MAIN ISSUES
The survey asked respondents to rank a series of issues from zero to 10 based on how much they influenced their vote. The following are percentages of respondents who rated each of the top issues seven or higher:
❚ 67% — affordability and cost of living
❚ 68% — jobs and the economy
❚ 65% — health care
❚ 62% — ethics and accountability in government
❚ 61% — taxes
CLIMATE CHANGE
The results show a stark divide on climate change along party lines. Liberal, NDP, Green and Bloc Québécois voters chose climate change as one of their top five issues, while it was one of the least influential issues for Conservative and PPC voters. Overall, climate change and the federal carbon tax ranked as “top secondary issues” in the survey results. Here are the percentages of voters who rated climate change seven or higher, based on party:
❚ 82% — Green
❚ 68% — NDP
❚ 66% — Liberal
❚ 62% — Bloc
❚ 31% — PPC
❚ 25% — Conservative
TOUGHER ACTION
Respondents were asked how the Liberal government should enact their climate change policies.
❚ 37% — enact policies they campaigned on
❚ 30% — stronger policies
❚ 24% — weaker policies
SCANDALS
The controversies that emerged during the election campaign moved the needle very little for most voters.
TRUDEAU’S PHOTOS IN BROWNFACE AND BLACKFACE
❚ 61% — little to no influence
❚ 21% — significant influence
SCHEER’S DUAL
CITIZENSHIP
❚ 64% — little to no influence
❚ 19% — significant influence
SCHEER’S INSURANCE BROKER CONTROVERSY
❚ 60% — little to no influence
❚ 17% — significant influence
ALLEGED CONSERVATIVE EFFORTS TO ATTACK PPC
❚ 54% — little to no influence
❚ 22% — significant influence
BARACK OBAMA’S TWITTER ENDORSEMENT
OF TRUDEAU
❚ 75% — little to no influence
❚ 11% — significant influence
The results are based on an online survey of 5,002 Canadian adults who voted in the federal election, conducted Oct. 23-25. Respondents were from all 10 provinces, and the survey used quotas and statistical weighting to accurately represent the provincial distribution of voters and political party support.
A margin of error cannot be applied to online samples, but a probability sample of this size would have a margin of error of 1.4 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.