84 percent of Canadians disapprove of Trump as president
President Donald Trump has an anemic approval rating in the United States – 54 percent of Americans disapprove of his job performance, according to a recent Gallup poll.
But that’s nothing compared to Canada. A new poll has found that 84 percent disapprove of the way Trump is handling his presidency. More than 80 percent say he’s dishonest; just 36 percent see him as a leader. Sixty-three percent say the word “intelligent” does not describe him, and 80 percent say he’s not compassionate.
The Mainstreet poll was conducted by live interviewers among 1,500 Canadian adults, reached through a random sample of landline and cellphones. They were contacted between Jan. 18 and Jan. 29, and the poll has a margin of error of about 2.5 percentage points.
On a related note, an Ipsos poll released Tuesday found that 4 in 10 Americans would prefer Trudeau as president to Trump. And 4 percent say they’ve started researching moving to Canada.
Despite this outpouring of negativity, though, more Canadians approve of Trump’s economic policy than of Trudeau’s. Forty-one percent of those surveyed disapprove of the prime minister’s economic policy; just 22 percent say the same of Trump’s. (Of course, Canadians have actually experienced Trudeau’s policy; Trump’s is more theoretical.) Canadians also prefer Trump on national security. About half of those surveyed approve of the American president’s approach on this issue; just 29 percent say Trudeau is doing a good job.
On other issues though – health care, immigration policy and foreign affairs – Trudeau received higher marks than Trump. Almost half of all respondents want Trudeau to speak out about America’s new immigration policy. “For now, we could say Trump’s weaknesses are accentuating Trudeau’s strengths, but the tables could turn and it’s possible success for Trump in economic policy could create a negative contrast for Trudeau in Canada,” Quito Maggi, Mainstreet’s president, told the National Post.
More than half (58 percent) of all Canadians say that Trudeau should invite Trump to Ottawa. A slim plurality (35 percent) say that Canada should offer to renegotiate NAFTA. Forty-three percent say Canada should work closely with Trump.
The results may offer useful insight to Trudeau, who will be visiting the United States next week to hold “wide-ranging” talks with Trump. If Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland’s conversation with members of Congress is any indication, Canada’s leader will focus on trade, particularly NAFTA. Trump has promised to renegotiate the deal to get better perks for the United States, though he has laid out no timeline.
Canadians aren’t too thrilled about that particular promise – another recent poll found that 58 percent of Canadians support a “trade war with the U.S.” if the Trump administration slaps new tariffs on Canadian exports. Sweetly, 57 percent of Canadians say that the Trudeau government will be able to protect Canada’s economic interests. And just over half oppose Ottawa cutting corporate taxes to mirror the expected lower corporate taxes promised by Trump.