Ipsos poll: With MPs returning, Carney government has decade-high approval

Canadians appear ready to give the Carney government the benefit of the doubt. But new polling shows the Liberals have some vulnerabilities on affordability and cost of housing.

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government will face the House of Commons next week for the first time since June. It begins the fall sitting of Parliament with an approval rating among Canadians that no government has seen in nearly a decade, according to new polling done exclusively for Global News by Ipsos.

While Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre has derided the Carney government’s activities since June as a “Seinfeld summer,” a summer in which Conservatives argue the government did “nothing,” Ipsos found that, over the summer, the Carney government’s approval rating has climbed by 10 points and now sits at 58 per cent.

Ipsos has not measured such a high approval rating for a government since Justin Trudeau’s government notched 61 per cent approval after its first year in office.

“So ‘Seinfeld’ was a show about nothing but it was also very popular,” said Ipsos’ Toronto-based Global CEO of Public Affairs, Darrell Bricker.

In its poll, conducted Sept. 5-8, Ipsos found highest levels of approval for the Carney government among those aged 18-34 (63 per cent approve) and 55 and older. (59 per cent approve)

And yet, Ipsos finds that the Carney government has some potential vulnerabilities that the Conservatives, Bloc Québecois and NDP opposition will be keen to exploit. Those vulnerabilities are on the issues of affordability, the cost of living and the economy.

“You can’t communicate your way out of this,” Bricker said. “You can’t promise your way of this. You’ve got to find a way to actually have a direct effect.

“The Trudeau government failed at it, and the Carney government, while people are hopeful, have not really reversed the public’s opinions on any of those things.”