Majority of Canadians say Trudeau should resign: poll
OTTAWA — A vast majority of Canadians believe the country is more divided than ever following the federal election, according to a new poll, with more than half saying Justin Trudeau should step down after a cynical and opportunistic campaign.
In a survey by Maru Public Opinion, 77 per cent of respondents said Canada feels more fractured than ever following a summer campaign that produced roughly the same seat count as the last parliamentary session. Just 23 per cent of respondents said the country is now more unified under Trudeau. A slim majority of respondents (52 per cent) said Canada's democratic system is broken and needs a major overhaul.
The results come at a time when divides over regional interests and government-led responses to the COVID-19 pandemic have remained a central issue in Canadian politics. In his acceptance speech earlier this week Trudeau sought to downplay the divisions within Canada, saying “that's not what I see.”
But that contention appears to run counter to what recent polling suggests, said John Wright, executive vice-president at Maru Public Opinion, and glosses over some of the deeper feelings of resentments, particularly in oil-dependent provinces like Alberta and Saskatchewan.
Respondents in Alberta were most likely to believe Canada is more divided than ever, at 88 per cent, followed by Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario (79 per cent), Atlantic Canada (70 per cent) and Quebec (69 per cent).
“This is a signal to leaders of this country, particularly the prime minister and whoever he's going to end up dancing with, that the public is in need of some healing,” he said. “And it starts with him.”
At the same time, 55 per cent of respondents said Trudeau should step down and allow a new leader to take the helm, compared with 45 per cent who believed he should stay. That was the highest proportion calling on a leader to resign, along with Green Party leader An-namie Paul, for whom 55 per cent of respondents also said she should step down.
Fifty-one per cent of respondents said Conservative leader Erin O'Toole should step down. Just 33 per cent believed Bloc leader Yves-François Blanchet should resign and 31 per cent for NDP leader Jagmeet Singh.
Feelings of regional division, or even broader feelings of apathy or distrust toward federal institutions, could be the result of a Canadian political culture that is increasingly populist and small-minded, rather than addressing larger societal questions.
After presenting the election as a referendum on the Liberals' broad economic recovery plans and the future composition of the Canadian economy, politicians spent the majority of their oxygen addressing marginal partisan issues like gun control or higher income taxes for the wealthy.
As usual, parties focused almost entirely on battleground ridings around Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal, while skipping over prairie provinces and northern territories.
Wright said that approach was laid out in a series of tweets by Gerald Butts, former principal secretary to Trudeau, after the election result, which praised the “super geniuses” within the Liberal party who managed to squeeze more seats out of fewer overall votes.
“He talked about the efficiency of the vote, but he didn't reflect on how the country needs to come together,” Wright said. “Again, it was a reflection of this sense that winning by micro targeting is the best way, and that power is more important than bringing a country together.
“If all it's going to be is micro campaigning for the minority of votes that you can get, you're going to leave the majority saying: ‘What is this all about?'”
Regional resentments were also evident in the Maru poll. Respondents in Alberta were most likely to believe that the democratic process in Canada is broken and in need of a major overhaul, at 63 per cent. The feeling was nextmost prominent in Saskatchewan and Manitoba (58 per cent), Atlantic Canada (54 per cent), Ontario (53 per cent), B.C. (48 per cent) and Quebec (44 per cent).
The Conservative Party won the popular vote but lost in seat count for the second consecutive election, which could be deepening dissatisfaction with the Canadian system in some regions.
In Alberta and Saskatchewan in particular, frustrations over the inability by the energy sector to build major pipeline projects due to legal and regulatory wrangling has created discontent with Ottawa.
The Maru poll surveyed 1,510 randomly-selected Canadians between Sept. 20 and Sept. 21, with a margin of error of 2.5 per cent points, 19 times out of 20.