Canadians sharply and evenly divided over Trudeau's pandemic performance, poll suggests

A new poll says public opinion on the political response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada is deeply divided, with those polled split evenly on the question of how Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has handled the emergency.

The poll, conducted by the Angus Reid Institute in partnership with CBC, found that 48 per cent of Canadians say Trudeau has done a "good" or "very good" job during the pandemic so far.

Another 48 per cent said Trudeau has done a "bad" or "very bad" job.

Shachi Kurl, president of the Angus Reid Institute, said the findings appear to confirm what many Canadians have already learned about the political divide exposed by the pandemic.

"Sometimes it's a confirmation of a trend ... it just tells us where we are as a country," she told CBC News.

Among those who said Trudeau has performed poorly, 31 per cent said he's handled the pandemic very badly — twice the number of respondents who said he's done a very good job.

Four per cent of respondents said they didn't or couldn't say how well Trudeau has performed.

The responses were collected through an online survey conducted from March 1 to 4 on a representative randomized sample of 2,550 Canadians 18 and older who are members of the Angus Reid Forum. For comparison purposes only, a probability sample of this size would carry a margin of error of plus or minus two percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

Fifty-six per cent of respondents said Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam has done a good job during the pandemic, while 34 per cent said she has done poorly.

Opinions about Trudeau's performance were most sharply divided on party lines, with Conservative voters voicing overwhelming dissatisfaction and Liberal supporters offering overwhelmingly positive impressions.

Among Conservatives, 84 per cent said Trudeau has done a bad or very bad job, while 88 per cent of Liberals said the prime minister has done a good or very good job.

Among NDP voters, 67 per cent said Trudeau has done well. Bloc Québécois supporters offered a more negative assessment — 62 per cent of them said Trudeau has done badly.

Trudeau's performance was rated most negatively in Alberta and Saskatchewan, where 45 per cent of respondents said he has done a "very bad job." Canadians in the Atlantic provinces and British Columbia were most satisfied with Trudeau's performance.

Trudeau and the Liberal government have implemented numerous measures meant to slow the pandemic over the past two years, including the closure of international borders and the enforcement of vaccine mandates for some travellers and federal workers. The federal government was also responsible for procuring vaccines.