The bad news continues to mount for Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with a new poll showing support for the “feminist” leader falling, even among women. A new Ipsos poll released Monday also provides the worst survey data yet for Trudeau, with 60 percent of Canadians saying it is time for him and his Liberal Party to go.
The data indicates a majority government for the official opposition Conservative Party if an election were held now. The Conservatives stand at 38 percent, the Liberals at 31 and the quasi-socialist New Democratic Party at 23.
But it’s the loss of support among women voters that is perhaps most striking about the poll. Trudeau has proclaimed himself to be “feminist” prime minister who is even insisting that a renegotiated NAFTA accommodate some degree of gender equity. Exactly 50 percent of his quota cabinet are women. Yet only 30 percent of women surveyed by Ipsos say they’ll be voting Liberal, with 35 percent supporting the Conservatives.
The Conservatives are maintaining a lead with middle-class voters as well – another constituency that Trudeau has consistently tried to appeal to while they enjoy a comfortable lead among the Gen X crowd, aged 35-54.
Although the Liberals are ahead among millennials with a 33 percent share, the NDP are not far behind with 31 percent. The Conservatives have 24 percent support among this, their least engaged voting block.
“[The Liberals] seem to be losing middle class supporters to the Conservatives, and they seem to be losing that millennial group of the population to the NDP,” Ipsos Global Affairs CEO Darrell Bricker told Global News. “So progressive voters are splitting again. And when progressive voters split, that’s when conservatives win.
“Whatever the Liberals have been doing in terms of their targeting doesn’t seem to have panned out.”
The icing on the cake for the Conservatives may be their support in vote-rich Ontario, where they are well ahead with 42 percent support.
The Ipsos poll is accurate to within plus or minus 3.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.