Trudeau’s departure raises party’s prospects in polls: Angus Reid Institute

Pollsters say Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s resignation is good news for the federal Liberal Party.

Shachi Kurl, president of the Angus Reid Institute, says Trudeau’s departure does raise the Liberal Party’s prospects from the extreme low they’ve been sitting at in recent months.

“In declaring that he’ll leave, Justin Trudeau takes some of the pressure off — it releases a pressure valve and enables the party to attempt to try to move forward,” Kurl told 1130 NewsRadio.

But she says it won’t be an easy ride. 

Kurl says the top contenders for the Liberal leadership will have to battle the public image of being associated with the Trudeau government, especially given that many of them are current cabinet ministers.

The Angus Reid Institute published a poll late last week, predicting Chrystia Freeland — the former finance minister and deputy prime minister who left cabinet and triggered the latest calls for Trudeau to resign — would be the most popular choice to take over as leader.

“When we talk about Chrystia Freeland, yes, she does loft the altitude of the Liberal Party. She can bring it up to as much as 21 per cent, maybe more,” Kurl explained. 

“But when you’re looking at the Conservative Party polling in the 40s, there’s still quite a gap to close. And she’ll have the problem any cabinet member would have: the problem of having to articulate how they are different when they have been part of the system and been part of the Trudeau Government for so long.”

Kurl employed the metaphor of the Liberal Party under Trudeau’s leadership as a patient reaching the next election “dead on arrival.”

“Under a new leader, especially Chrystia Freeland, the party makes it into the ICU, but that isn’t necessarily a recipe for a full recovery.”