In Twitter Spat Between Trudeau and Scheer over Khadr Settlement, Canadians Split on Whose Tweets Better Reflect their Views

Toronto, Ontario, July 28, 2017 — Weeks after it was revealed that the federal government had settled a civil lawsuit brought by Omar Khadr, Canadians are still torn as to whether the approach was the right one to take. The settlement, which was made public in early July, included a compensation payment of $10.5 million and a public apology from the Government of Canada to Khadr. In the days after the news broke, political leaders of all stripes fought to control the story, and many took to Twitter to air their views.

 A new Ipsos survey for Global News presented Canadians with the text of tweets from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer, and asked them which came closest to their own point of view. The results are about as tight as can be: 51% identify more with Trudeau’s take on the settlement, while 49% side with Scheer.

The tweets were issued in the form of a short, recorded statement from Trudeau, and a series of images from Scheer with quotes from a longer recorded statement. The text in full reads as follows:

“The Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects all Canadians, every one of us, even when it is uncomfortable. This is not about the details or merits of the Khadr case. If government violates any Canadian's Charter rights, we all end up paying for it.”
– Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

“Make no mistake. This settlement is a choice made by Justin Trudeau. What's worse: Justin Trudeau is hiding it from Canadians. This payout is a slap in the face to the men and women in uniform who face incredible danger every day to keep us safe. If Omar Khadr is truly sorry for what he has done, that money should be given directly to the family of Sergeant Speer.”
– Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer

By and large, opinion on the settlement is split close to 50-50 overall, with a directional advantage for Trudeau.

• Women (54%) are slightly more likely than men (49%) to say the Trudeau tweet comes closer to their point of view, while younger Canadians are directionally more likely than older ones to identify with it: 55% of Millennials sided with the Trudeau tweet, compared with 53% of Gen X’ers and 47% of Baby Boomers. Regionally, support for Trudeau’s stance on the Khadr settlement is somewhat stronger in British Columbia (57%), followed by Ontario (52%), Quebec (51%), Atlantic Canada (50%), Saskatchewan and Manitoba (50%), and Alberta (45%).
• Men (51%) show marginally more support than women (46%) for what Scheer tweeted about the settlement. Slightly more than half (53%) of Boomers say his tweet comes closer to their point of view, compared to 47% of Gen X Canadians and 45% of Millennials. Albertans (55%) are more likely to side with Scheer’s point of view, followed by residents of the Prairies (50%) and Atlantic Canada (50%), Quebec (49%), Ontario (48%), and BC (43%).

After a year and a half of a slow but steady decline in approval ratings since the 2015 election (not uncommon for a new government), this study comes at a time when public approval for the Liberal government under Trudeau’s leadership is improving, suggesting that his handling of the Khadr settlement has not had a discernably negative impact on the overall image of the Liberal Government.

The survey finds that six in ten Canadians (60%) approve (15% strongly/45% somewhat) of the Liberal government’s performance, up by four percentage points since April. Conversely, four in ten (40%) disapprove (20% strongly/20% somewhat) of the government’s performance, down 4 points.

Approval ratings are higher among Millennials (68%) than Gen Xers (58%) and Boomers (56%). Regionally, approval ratings are highest in Atlantic Canada (70%) and Quebec (68%), followed by Ontario (62%), BC (58%), Saskatchewan and Manitoba (49%) and Alberta (38%).

These are some of the findings of an Ipsos poll conducted between July 24 and July 25, 2017, on behalf of Global News. For this survey, a sample of 1,000 Canadians aged 18+ from Ipsos' online panel was interviewed online. Weighting was then employed to balance demographics to ensure that the sample's composition reflects that of the adult population according to Census data and to provide results intended to approximate the sample universe. The precision of Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the poll is accurate to within ±3.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, had all Canadian adults 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]

For full tabular results, please visit our website at www.ipsos-na.com.
News Releases are available at: http://www.ipsos-na.com/news-polls/

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