TORONTO: It isn’t just Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s ruling Liberal Party that is losing the confidence of the country’s voters, even it’s partner, the New Democratic Party or NDP, is bleeding support, according to a new poll.
The NDP, led by Indo-Canadian Jagmeet Singh, will see the percentage of support it has going down from nearly 18 per cent during the 2021 Federal elections to 17 per cent, if polls were to be held now, according to a survey from the agency Leger for the outlet National Post.
Significantly, more of the those sampled felt their impression of the NDP and Singh had ‘worsened”, at 32 per cent, as against 20 per cent who viewed them more favourably.
The troubling signs for the NDP were also evident during the June Federal by-poll for Toronto-St Paul, which saw it’s vote share drop from 17 per cent to 11 per cent, in what proved a catastrophic outcome for Trudeau’s party as it lost a seat is had held since 1993.
Singh became leader of the NDP in October 2017. In the Federal election prior to his leadership, the NDP had 44 seats in the House of Commons and nearly 20 per cent vote share. In 2021, both those numbers were markedly lower – with 25 NDP MPs elected and a vote share of approximately 18 per cent.
Last week, Singh said, “We look at this as really people sending their message. They are frustrated with Trudeau. They’re done with Trudeau, and they are frustrated with the Liberal party, and they’ve got reasons to.” However, the minority Trudeau Government is surviving with the support of the NDP, after they entered into a “supply and confidence agreement” in March 2022.
Singh hasn’t stated whether he will continue to back Trudeau, even though he said, “We hear this again and again: things are getting worse, not better. The Liberals have had nine years to make improvements, and they haven’t.”
As per the overall figures from the Leger poll, the Conservative Party has 41 per cent support, far ahead of the Liberals, who are at 27 per cent. If elections were held now, the Conservatives would secure 218 seats, as against just 67 for the incumbent.
