Six in Ten (59%) Canadians Agree the Trudeau Government is More Style than Substance, Nearly Half (45%) Can't Name a Government Accomplishment after First Year in Office

Toronto, ON - While a majority agree that the Trudeau government is more style than substance and nearly half can't name a government accomplishment after its first year in office, most sill believe the Prime Minister's approach to politics is good for Canada and that the government is a breath of fresh air, according to a new Ipsos poll conducted on behalf of Global News.

Six in ten (59%) Canadians `agree' (20% strongly/39% somewhat) that the `Trudeau government is more style than substance', while four in ten (41%) `disagree' (12% strongly/29% somewhat) that it is. But it also appears that most Canadians appreciate the Prime Minister's new style, which is in stark contrast to that of his predecessor:

• Two in three (65%) Canadians `agree' (19% strongly/46% somewhat) that Prime Minister Trudeau's approach to politics has been good for Canada, while one in three (35%) `disagree' (13% strongly/21% somewhat) that it is. At the end of 2014, 46% agreed that then Prime Minister Harper's approach to politics was good for Canada.
• A similar proportion (64%) `agrees' (15% strongly/49% somewhat) that Prime Minister Trudeau's approach to politics has been good for Parliament, while 36% `disagree' (14% strongly/22% somewhat). At the end of 2014, 43% agreed that then Prime Minister Harper's approach was good for Parliament.
• Six in ten (62%) `agree' (17% strongly/46% somewhat) that they share Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's values when it comes to where Canada should be headed, while four in ten (38%) `disagree' (16% strongly/22% somewhat). At the end of 2014, 44% agreed that they shared Prime Minister Harper's values.

While an Ipsos poll released yesterday for Global News showed that only a slim majority of Canadians agreed that they had a clear idea of what the priorities of the Trudeau government are, the results of today's poll show it doesn't yet matter as Canadians appear to have voted primarily for a change in style: two in three (63%) `agree' (25% strongly/39% somewhat) that the Trudeau government is a breath of fresh air for Canada, while only one in three (37%) `disagree' (17% strongly/19% somewhat).

In fact, Canadians see a stark contrast in style between the new Trudeau government and the old Harper government, as two in three (66%) `disagree' (26% strongly/40% somewhat) that the Trudeau government is pretty much doing the same things the way the Harper government did them and that they haven't really noticed a difference. Only one in three (34%) `agree' (10% strongly/24% somewhat) that the Liberal government is similar in style to the former Conservative government.

160Canadians Describe Trudeau Government in Their Own Words, Nearly Half Can't Name Government Accomplishment in First Year

Canadians were asked, on an open-ended basis, to identify the first thing that came to mind when thinking about the Liberal government under Justin Trudeau. More generally, 45% of the mentions were classified as positive, compared to 33% of Canadians who said something negative (the remaining didn't know, had no opinion or said something neutral).

Among the more common positive mentions were that they're satisfied with the government's performance (11%), that the Prime Minister is young, new blood and has new ideas (9%), and that the government represents positive change for the better (3%). Other mentions include being progressive/open-minded/dynamic (2%), charismatic/popular/handsome (2%), and that the government demonstrates equality and protects minorities (2%).

Among the negative mentions were that some believe the government is exercising poor economic/debt/deficit management (5%), that the Prime Minister is too young and/or inexperienced (3%), or that they simply feel the government is bad (5%), incompetent (2%), or untrustworthy/liars (2%).

Reflecting on what Canadians consider to be the greatest accomplishments of the Liberal government under Justin Trudeau, mentions of equality/multiculturalism were prevalent (12%, including 6% who specifically mention helping refugees and immigrants), followed by mentions of international policy/affairs (7%), and various domestic policy areas such as helping families/child care benefit (5%), climate change/helping the environment (2%), reducing taxes (2%), a promise/attempt to legalize marijuana (2%).

However, it is interesting to note that 22% of Canadians said they didn't know what the government's greatest accomplishment is, and 23% of Canadian simply said "nothing", meaning that nearly half (45%) of Canadians can't name any accomplishment of the Trudeau government after its first year in office.

These are some of the findings of an Ipsos poll conducted between October 11 to 14, 2016, on behalf of Global News. For this survey, a sample of 1,000 Canadians from Ipsos' online panel was interviewed online. Weighting160was then160employed 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.160 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
(416) 324-2001
Ipsos Public Affairs
[email protected]

About Ipsos

Ipsos ranks third in the global research industry. With a strong presence in 87 countries, Ipsos employs more than 16,000 people and has the ability to conduct research programs in more than 100 countries. Founded in France in 1975, Ipsos is controlled and managed by research professionals. They have built a solid Group around a multi-specialist positioning-- Media and advertising research; Marketing research; Client and employee relationship management; Opinion & social research; Mobile, Online, Offline data collection and delivery. Ipsos has been listed on the Paris Stock Exchange since 1999. www.ipsos.com