Most Canadians now want early election as Trudeau support drops again: poll

As the Liberal government grapples with political upheaval following the exit of Chrystia Freeland from the federal cabinet, a new Ipsos poll shows most Canadians now want an early election.

That comes as support for Conservatives is surging and support for the Liberals is at a near-historic low this week — putting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau just one point above the record-low support seen by former Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff in 2011.​

Ignatieff led the party to its worst defeat in history in 2011, which  saw the Liberals reduced to third-party status behind the NDP as official opposition and the Conservatives winning a majority government.

Ipsos polling done exclusively for Global News and released Friday shows over half of Canadians (53 per cent) believe opposition parties should defeat the government “at the earliest opportunity” and trigger an early election.

Meanwhile, 46 per cent believe opposition parties should work with the government on a case-by-case basis to avoid an early election.

This is a near-reversal of the data released on Monday morning before Freeland’s resignation, which shared responses gathered in early December.

That poll said 54 per cent did not want an early election and 46 per cent did.

2:04 Cabinet shuffle to test Liberal solidarity with PM Trudeau

The popular vote share for the Liberals has dropped one per cent since last week and six points since September to 20 per cent, tying them with the New Democrats.

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NDP support has dropped one point since last week but has risen four per cent since September.

The Bloc Quebecois has maintained its support at seven per cent, while the Green Party is up one per cent since last week.

The prime minister’s personal popularity has gone down five per cent since the last Ipsos poll, with only 23 per cent overall saying they think Trudeau deserves re-election, and 77 per cent saying they think it’s time for a new party to take over.

Since renewed calls for him to step down this week, 73 per cent respondents said Trudeau should step down while 27 per cent want him to continue as prime minister and lead the party in the election in 2025.

3:03 Trudeau likens Freeland’s departure to a family spat, calls Poilievre the ‘Grinch’

There was a sharp drop in the percentage of respondents who thought Trudeau was best suited to deal with Donald Trump in trade negotiations.

The polls said 14 per cent believe Trudeau would do the best job representing Canada’s interests with a new Trump administration, compared to 39 per cent who said Poilievre would be best suited for that role.

The gulf between perceptions of both leaders has only widened since the last Ipsos poll when 22 per cent said Trudeau was best suited for the role compared to 34 per cent for Poilievre.

2:23 What led to Freeland’s sudden resignation?

These are some of the findings of an Ipsos poll conducted between December 19 and 20, 2024, on behalf of Global News. For this survey, a sample of 1,001 Canadians aged 18+ was interviewed online. Quotas and weighting were employed to ensure that the sample’s composition reflects that of the Canadian population according to Census parameters. The precision of Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the poll is accurate to within ± 3.8 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, had all Canadians aged 18+ been polled.