Support for the federal Liberals looks to be on the rise as new shipments of the highly coveted COVID-19 vaccine arrive, according to a new poll.
Ipsos polling done exclusively for Global News found that should an federal election be held, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau‘s Liberals would receive 35 per cent of the popular vote — up two percentage points from last month — while the Conservatives would receive 28 per cent, down from 30 per cent.
National support for both the NDP and Bloc Quebecois has also decreased as well, while the Green Party saw an increase to 10 per cent of decided voters asked.
The results of the polling come amid a previous announcement from public health officials that announced a near one million doses of the coronavirus vaccine arrive last week, as well as roughly 900,000 doses set to arrive this week.
“What we’ve been seeing is that what happens in terms of voter support at the moment really does very much follow what’s happening with the management of the COVID crisis,” said Ipsos’ CEO public affairs Darrell Bricker.
Polling from Ipsos previously found that a majority of Canadians were “angry” that Canada was falling behind countries like the U.K. and U.S. in its own rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Mounting frustration over delays in vaccine deliveries from manufacturers Pfizer and Moderna previously saw the Liberals holding a very narrow lead of three points over the Conservatives.
Bricker said that it’s still too early to give a definitive answer on who could come out on top of an election, despite the seven-point lead the Liberals now hold over the opposition.
“But even at this time, we’re not seeing the Liberals break away to any strong degree from the pack. Conservatives are still there. The NDP is kind of around where they were in the last election campaign,” said Bricker.
Unsurprisingly, the poll also found that the federal Liberals’ strength still comes mostly from the seat-rich provinces of Ontario and British Columbia, where the party holds double-digit leads over their oppositions.
According to Bricker, should an election be held sometime soon, the Liberal Party’s biggest roadblock to a majority would be the Bloc Quebecois’ hold over Quebec.
“Ontario is looking really good for the Liberal Party at the moment, but it probably isn’t enough to get them to the majority simply because they’ve basically won all of the seats that are really accessible to them in the province of Ontario already,” said Bricker.
Lastly, the poll also found that approval ratings for the prime minister himself continue to be strong, with 55 per cent approving of Trudeau’s performance in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
That performance continues to be overshadowed by ratings for premiers and mayors, however, with the only exception being that of Alberta’s Conservative Premier Jason Kenney, whose approval rating in the province stands at 42 per cent in comparison to Trudeau’s 48 per cent.
“Alberta does stand out because it’s the only place in the country in which we see that the prime minister tends to be doing a little bit better than the provincial premier — and that’s something for the first time we’ve seen in this most recent polling,” said Bricker.
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.” This poll was conducted between March 2-3, 2021, with a sample of 1,000 Canadians aged 18+ interviewed online. The precision of Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. This poll is accurate to within ± 3.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, had all Canadians aged 18+ been polled
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