The majority of Canadians believe our economy is in a state of emergency, similar to the one in 2008, according to a new Ipsos Poll conducted exclusively for Global News released Thursday.
But despite that, the poll also showed that 63 per cent of Canadians believe the Liberals’ “heart is in the right place,” and would give the government the benefit of the doubt if it makes mistakes.
Canadian economic confidence is the “lowest it’s been in a generation,” Bricker said, but people aren’t attributing that with Trudeau’s Liberals – overall, the poll suggests 60 per cent of Canadians agree the newly-formed government is doing a good job managing the economy.
“There’s just a general sense that people are really happy with the change that took place in the government, that they are optimistic about their abilities to deal with what they see is somewhat troubling economic times,” Bricker told Global News.
With the budget announcement coming next week, public opinion could change, the pollster warns.
READ MORE: Federal budget to restore old age security to 65-year-olds, Trudeau says
Even though Canadians’ approval of the government is higher than the previous Conservative government’s – when polled on election day only 51 per cent of Canadians ‘approved’ of Stephen Harper’s Conservatives – that could all change when the budget is announced next week.
“This budget is really going to be the cutting point between people blaming the previous government for what’s going on, and this government owning their circumstances,” Bricker warned.
The high ratings came even after changes to election promises made by Trudeau in October.
READ MORE: Trudeau casts doubt on balanced-budget campaign vow
But that could be because half of Canadians, according to the Ipsos poll, believe the Liberals have the right to change their election promises, since the economy has shifted since October, the poll found. During the election, the Liberals promised a deficit of no bigger than $9 billion – that’s since ballooned to approximately $18 billion.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Liberals have the lowest approval rating in Alberta, where the oil crisis has hit the province hard recently. The Liberals also only picked up four seats in the province on election night.
Exclusive Global News Ipsos polls are protected by copyright. The information and/or data may only be rebroadcast or republished with full and proper credit and attribution to “Global News Ipsos.”
These are some of the findings of an Ipsos poll conducted between March 14 and 16, 2016, on behalf of Global News. For this survey, a sample of 1,008 Canadians from Ipsos’ online panel was interviewed online. The poll is accurate to within +/ – 3.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, had all Canadian adults been polled.
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