One Half (49%) of Canadians Want a Federal Election in 2023

Toronto, ON, December 26, 2022 – One half (49%) of Canadians think there should be a federal election in 2023, despite one not being legally mandated until 2025, according to a new Ipsos poll conducted on behalf of Global News.

Younger Canadians aged 18-34 (65%) are by far the most likely to want an election, while those aged 35-54 (47%) and 55+ (38%) are much less likely to want to head to the polls in 2023. Regionally, Canadians living in Atlantic Canada (63%), Alberta (60%), Saskatchewan and Manitoba (55%) and British Columbia (53%) are more likely than average to want an election. Only a minority of Ontarians (46%) and Quebecers (60%) want an election.

The desire for an election notwithstanding, only 43% believe there will be a federal election in 2023, once again with those aged 18-34 (51%) being more likely to say so than those aged 35-54 (44%) or 55+ (37%).

In April 2023, Justin Trudeau will mark 10 years as Liberal Leader, and eight of those years will have been served as Prime Minister of Canada. This long tenure – along with the party’s struggles to win another majority mandate – are causing speculation as to how long Justin Trudeau will remain in the top job.

A majority (54%) of Canadians think that Prime Minister Trudeau should step down as Liberal Leader and that Canada should have a new Prime Minister, a feeling more widely held among men (58%) than women (49%). Once again, there is notable regional variation, with those in Alberta (65%) being most likely to hold this position, followed by residents of Atlantic Canada (57%), Saskatchewan and Manitoba (56%), Ontario (56%), British Columbia (54%), and Quebec (43%).

Despite the desire among many for Mr. Trudeau to step down, just one in four (27%) believes the Prime Minister will in fact step down.

Jagmeet Singh Leader with Greatest Approval Rating

Santa Claus is not the only keeper of a naughty or nice list! Canadians have given their assessment of the performance of each of the major national party leaders. Only one of them has received the approval of a majority of Canadians (Jagmeet Singh), while the remaining leaders will want to work on their popularity if there is the potential for an election to be held in 2023.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh (53%) enjoys the highest approval rating, followed by Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau (45%) who narrowly edges out Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre. Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, who is back in the role after a short hiatus, has received the approval of only 39% of Canadians, while People’s Party Leader Maxime Bernier has the approval of only 26% of Canadians. Within Quebec, Yves-François Blanchet has the approval of 43% of Quebecers.

About the Study

These are some of the findings of an Ipsos poll conducted between December 14 and 16, 2022, on behalf of Global News. For this survey, a sample of 1,004 Canadians aged 18+ was interviewed. 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 ± 3.5 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 J. Bricker, PhD
CEO, Ipsos Global Public Affairs
+1 416 324 2001
[email protected]  

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