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Trudeau’s approval ratings drop to their lowest level since election

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau continues to drop in the polls.

CBC poll analyst Éric Grenier writes, “Trudeau’s approval ratings have dropped to their lowest level since he became prime minister, according to a new poll. The survey, published by Forum Research for the Toronto Star, found Trudeau’s approval rating sitting at 48 per cent, down three points since December and 10 points since November, with his disapproval rating increasing to 42 from 32 per cent two months ago. Those are the worst numbers Forum — or any other pollster — has registered for Trudeau since he became prime minister.”

He adds, “Support for the Liberal Party has also slipped, with Forum pegging it at 42 per cent. That is unchanged from December but down nine points from November. A four-week rolling poll by Nanos Research found Liberal support down to 39.4 per cent, a decrease from 43.6 per cent in the previous four-week sample.”

While this drop may be attributable to various issues — the approval of controversial pipelines and LNG projects, appearing to back away from his promise of electoral reform, cash-for-access fundraising, Trudeau’s vacation on a billionaire’s private island in the Bahamas — Grenier notes, “Trudeau’s sliding numbers are typical of a prime minister roughly 15 months after taking office. If Trudeau continues to follow the trend, that means his approval rating is likely to continue sliding — just as his predecessors’ ratings did over the course of their second years in office.”

Among our key campaign demands, we are asking that the prime minister:

    • remove the water, investor-state and energy proportionality provisions from the North American Free Trade Agreement
    • vote against C-30, the implementing legislation for the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement
    • immediately withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership rather than trying to rescue the deal now that the United States has officially rejected it
    • reject the 1.1 million barrel per day Energy East pipeline
    • retract his approval of the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain, Line 3 and Keystone XL export pipelines
    • immediately restore and enhance the Navigable Waters Protection Act
    • reject further Fisheries Act and Navigation Protection Act permits for the Site C dam in northeastern British Columbia
    • reject the proposal to build a nuclear waste dump about a kilometre from the shores of Lake Huron
    • implement a national pharmacare program
    • commit to a 6 per cent escalator and the federal government covering 25 per cent of health care costs
    • implement proportional representation in time for the next federal election
    • respect the right to free, prior and informed consent

If the prime minister were to act on these demands, people may see the “real change” they voted for on October 19, 2015.