Tories gain support but O’Toole lags Trudeau, Singh as best choice for PM: Poll

OTTAWA - A brand new ballot suggests the Conservatives are again inside hanging distance of the Liberals after a stoop in help late final 12 months amid inner grumbling in regards to the get together’s election loss.

The Leger ballot, carried out Jan. 21-23, pegged Conservative help at 31 per cent, again to the identical stage of help the get together loved earlier than final fall’s federal election.

Liberal help stood at 34 per cent, down two share factors from a December survey.

Leger govt vice-president Christian Bourque stated this marks the second month in a row through which the Tories have seen small good points after dropping just under 30 per cent final November. It places them again inside “hanging vary of the Liberals,” he stated.

Nonetheless, the ballot suggests Canadians nonetheless aren’t offered on Conservative Chief Erin O’Toole, who continues to path Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and NDP Chief Jagmeet Singh as the only option for prime minister.

The net survey of 1,525 grownup Canadians was carried out Jan. 21-13. It can't be assigned a margin of error as a result of internet-based polls aren't thought-about random samples.

The ballot suggests Canadians’ voting intentions have modified little because the Sept. 20 federal election, after they handed Trudeau’s Liberals their second consecutive minority mandate and returned all events to Parliament with an nearly unchanged variety of seats.

Bourque attributed the slight decline in Liberal help over the previous month to folks feeling fatigued with the COVID-19 pandemic and fed up with residing below public well being restrictions.

“It’s getting harder for premiers and for the federal authorities, as effectively, to keep up the help of Canadians in relation to the administration of the present pandemic,” he stated.

When it got here to who respondents felt would make the very best prime minister, simply 16 per cent selected O’Toole, inserting him third behind Trudeau at 25 per cent and Singh at 19 per cent.

Bourque stated Singh is the one chief whose private attraction was greater than help for his get together, albeit solely barely.

Eighteen per cent of respondents stated they’d vote for the NDP if an election had been held in the present day, in comparison with six per cent for the Folks’s Get together of Canada and three per cent for the Greens.

In Quebec, the Bloc Quebecois was nearly tied with the Liberals, with 30 per cent and 29 per cent help respectively.

Whereas greater than 70 per cent of Liberal and NDP supporters selected their respective get together leaders as their most well-liked alternative for prime minister, simply 58 per cent of Conservative supporters picked O’Toole.

Questions on O’Toole’s destiny as Conservative chief nonetheless stay as some within the get together, together with a few of his personal MPs, doubt he can lead the Tories to victory within the subsequent race.

The Conservatives are holding a caucus retreat this week throughout which they’ll be offered with the findings from a overview into the get together’s failure to defeat the Liberals on Sept. 20.

The Liberal caucus can also be assembly this week earlier than MPs reconvene Monday for the winter sitting of Parliament, throughout which the Omicron-driven wave of the pandemic and rising inflation are anticipated to dominate the agenda.

This report by The Canadian Press was first printed Jan. 25, 2022