Mark Carney’s Liberals Seen as Best Party to Deal with Trump & Tariffs

Mark Carney is thought to be the best federal party leader to help Canada navigate challenges associated with the Donald Trump Presidency, performing well ahead of Justin Trudeau on the same measures. By contrast, Pierre Poilievre is the candidate chosen by Canadians as most likely to roll over and accept whatever President Trump demands, with more Canadians indicating this view than in February 2025. Confidence in Carney’s leadership is strongest among those 55+, who are more likely to select Carney as representing these traits than other age groups. Poilievre’s leadership is assessed more positively in the Prairie provinces, while Carney is broadly more favoured across the rest of Canada.
 

Mark Carney enjoys the strongest approval ratings of any of the federal party leaders, with 48% indicating approval and 30% indicating disapproval. Compared to Justin Trudeau’s approval ratings in September 2024, Carney outpaces the previous Prime Minister by 15  points. Pierre Poilievre sees greater disapproval (52%) than approval (35%). Poilievre enjoys higher approval ratings in Alberta (52%) and Saskatchewan and Manitoba (44%), while Carney’s approval is highest in Atlantic Canada (58%). Singh, May, Blanchet, and Bernier see approval ratings of one-third or less among Canadians, half disapproving with Singh and Bernier in particular.

A majority of Canadians (60%) feel the Liberal Party led by Mark Carney would provide the best overall government for Canada right now compared to 40% who think Pierre Poilievre and the Conservatives would be best to lead. The majority favours a Carney government  in nearly all regions of Canada, save the Prairies.
 

These are some of the findings of an Ipsos poll conducted between March 14 and 17, 2025, on behalf of Global News. For this survey, a sample of 1,000 Canadians aged 18+ was interviewed online. Quotas and weighting were employed to ensure that the sample’s composition reflects that of the Canadian population according to census parameters. The precision of Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the poll is accurate to within ± 3.8 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, had all Canadians aged 18+ been polled. The credibility interval will be wider among subsets of the population. All sample surveys and polls may be subject to other sources of error, including, but not limited to coverage error, and measurement error.

For more information on this news release, please contact:
Darrell Bricker, PhD
CEO, Ipsos Global Public Affairs
+1 416 324 2001
[email protected]

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