Canadians have a more positive view of former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney than they do of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as Liberal party leader.
However, Carney’s addition to the Liberal cabinet may not be enough to regain support from voters.
A new poll by Nanos Research asked Canadians how much Carney’s potential addition to the Liberal cabinet would have on their decision in the next election and the results revealed that while it may help their image, it won’t be enough to sway voters.
Political pundits have floated the idea of Carney replacing Trudeau as the Liberal party leader for some time, however, thus far he’s only being asked to join the cabinet by the prime minister.
Carney himself has remained quiet on such speculations.
The Nanos poll asked Canadians how their view of the Liberal party would change if Carney was appointed to become the new finance minister and 39% said while it would help, it wouldn’t dramatically change their opinion of the party.
Another 29% said that it would help give the Liberals a more competitive edge for the upcoming election and 8% said it would make them less competitive.
The remaining 24% said they were unsure.
The poll also revealed that current Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland held a more positive image for Canadians than Trudeau.
Over a third of respondents, 35%, said that they had a positive or somewhat positive image of Freeland while 17% said they were neutral about her.
However, nearly half of respondents, 44%, said they had a negative opinion of Freeland and the remaining 4% said they were unsure.
As for Trudeau, only 34% said they had a positive or somewhat positive view of him, while 63% said they held a negative or somewhat negative view of the prime minister.
“If the Liberals want to improve their fortunes, they should be looking at the person that has the weakest brand and right now it’s Justin Trudeau,” Nanos Research’s chief data scientist Nik Nanos told the Globe and Mail, who commissioned the poll.
“We have a federal party leader and a Prime Minister, that’s unpopular, trying to patch up the political fortunes of his party, when the reality is that he is fundamentally the biggest negative draw right now for the Liberals.”
Despite having a much lower public profile than both Trudeau and Freeland, Canadians held the least negative opinion of Carney, with 33% of respondents saying they had a high opinion of him.
According to Nanos, his firm has seen little change in national polling since August of last year regarding Canadians’ political views, with the Conservative party holding a strong lead over the Liberals for the past year.
“The rising cost of living and people’s issues with housing affordability doesn’t lend itself to people feeling positive about any incumbent government,” said Nanos, who thinks the best chance the Liberals have for the next election is to change leadership.
Nanos said while that wouldn’t guarantee reelection, it would at least place the Liberals “back in the game.”
If the party were to change leadership, the poll shows Carney to be the most popular option, with 29% of respondents showing interest in him, compared to the 9% who would like to see Trudeau run as leader again.