Trudeau’s ‘well-managed’ image may be reason for soaring approval rating
Posted May 27, 2016 7:00 am.
Last Updated May 27, 2016 7:02 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Justin Trudeau has been glad-handing and drawing praise from foreign media at the G7 Summit in Japan. Meanwhile, back here in Canada, the PM’s latest approval ratings are soaring.
A recent Abacus Data survey suggests if there were an election tomorrow, 46 per cent of Canadians would vote Liberal. Only 27 per cent would vote Conservative and 15 per cent would throw their support behind the NDP.
Only 40 per cent of voters cast a ballot for the Liberals in the election last fall.
“I’m not surprised that [support is] high [but I’m] surprised that it’s so high because we’re not used to seeing numbers like that,” says UBC political scientist David Moscrop.
He tells us part of the reason for that is Trudeau is giving us what we want to see.
“In part, I think it’s a function of the fact that people aren’t really thinking about or talking about the issues. It really is still the image that people are transfixed on, and the image is well-managed and positive. So, people are going to like that, especially given the last guy.”
Moscrop adds it may not matter what the opposition says about the PM.
“If it [criticism] doesn’t resonate with people — if they don’t believe you when you say ‘Here are all these things he’s screwing up’ — then it’s not going to matter. And if they like the guy, which a lot of people clearly do, then it becomes very hard to accept criticism,” says Moscrop, who expects things to remain similar until the fall session of Parliament, when issues like assisted dying and pot legalization will again dominate the discussion.
“Parliament is going to rise soon and then it will be all quiet on the western front a while. And then the trick will be ‘Can this momentum be maintained until the fall?’ Because things will continue to get nasty and nastier. It doesn’t last forever — it doesn’t matter who you are.
“Think about Trudeau-mania in the 1960s. By the early 1970s, it had started to fade. So [high support] may last a while, but it won’t last forever.”
