Large majority wants Mark Carney to disclose business interests: poll

Article content

OTTAWA — Two-thirds of Canadians think Liberal leader Mark Carney should proactively reveal his business interests before election day, according to a new poll.

Article content

Article content

A new Postmedia-Leger poll suggests 67 per cent of Canadians feel Carney should “voluntarily reveal his business interests” before voters go to the ballot box April 28.

Carney has so far refused to disclose the assets he says he put into a blind trust weeks ago, or his potential conflicts of interest. He’s argued he went above and beyond legal requirements by immediately setting up the blind trust and filing his disclosure to the ethics commissioner after being elected Liberal leader.

Article content

Carney also previously dismissed a reporter’s suggestion that he might have conflicts of interest after spending years working in the private sector, before later acknowledging he expects to recuse himself from his past work as chairman at Brookfield Asset Management.

Leger executive vice-president Andrew Enns said Carney’s resistance on the issue is “offside” with voters.

“The Conservatives would look at this data point and say, hey, we’re on the right track. And then probably sit there with, you know, a little consternation that it doesn’t appear to be sort of landing with voters,” he added.

In fact, most attempts by parties to define their opponents — and sometimes their own leaders — are only mildly successful as voters’ attention is focused on U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to Canada.

Since the beginning of the campaign, Conservatives have harped on about Carney being “just like Justin” Trudeau. According to the poll, the same proportion of respondents (42 per cent) agreed and disagreed that Carney is like Trudeau.

“Even if the Conservatives could do a little bit better in terms of connecting Carney and Trudeau, I just don’t think that’s what’s on the minds of the voters right now,” Enns said.

Article content

Article content

Inversely, Carney and the Liberals have run advertisements and messaging comparing Poilievre to Trump, a message that appears to be catching on slightly more. Nearly half of poll respondents said Poilievre is like Trump, whereas 35 per cent disagreed.

“I think that’s a bit of a problem” for Conservatives, Enns said. “It’s not a good thing these days to be equated to Donald Trump, and certainly politically, I suspect that’s in part why they haven’t tried to sort of position themselves with Trump at the forefront.”

The latest poll shows support for each party flattening out, with Liberals (44 per cent) maintaining a six-point lead over the Conservatives (38 per cent) while the NDP’s woes continue with only seven per cent of support (up one point).

In Quebec, the Bloc Québécois’ support is tied with Conservatives at 23 per cent, while the Liberals enjoy a 20-point provincial lead (43 per cent).

Though Trump is top of mind for voters, neither Carney nor Poilievre appear to have earned the reputation of “Captain Canada”-level patriotism in Canadians’ eyes.

Article content

The poll suggests both leaders score roughly the same (6/10 for Carney, 5.9/10 for Poilievre) when respondents are asked how much each is considered a “Canadian patriot.”

Enns said he expected Carney to score better than in light of the Liberals’ recent boost in the polls led by their response to Trump.

Voters also appear skeptical of Poilievre and Carney’s proximity to the common man, scoring both a 5.9/10 when asked to rate how much each is “in touch” with the typical Canadian voter.

Poilievre has repeatedly accused Carney of being a “globalist” and an “elitist” that is disconnected from Canadians.

“For Poilievre, a tie is not what you’re looking for here,” Enns said. The Conservatives’ accusations that Carney is a globalist and a disconnected elitist “is not landing as well as they probably hoped it would.”

The poll also suggests that only 10 days into the campaign, a surprising number of voters have already made up their minds as to whom they will vote for on April 28.

Two-thirds of respondents told Leger their choice is final, while only one-third said they may change their mind.

Article content

Those proportions are generally identical among Liberal and Conservative voters.

But hidden in those numbers is an even more concerning trend for the NDP, which Enns says is already at “record low” levels of support.

More than half of NDP supporters (57 per cent) said they may change their mind come election day, and nearly one in five responded that Mark Carney — not NDP leader Jagmeet Singh — would make the best prime minister.

“(Singh’s) job has to be to double his current standing in the in the popular opinion polls. I mean, seven per cent, that’s not acceptable,” Enns said. “You need to be 15 to 20 to at least maintain what you’ve got” if you’re the NDP.

The polling was done between March 26 and 31 with a sample of 3,002 Canadians via an online panel. While margins of error can’t be applied to online panels, a probability sample of this size would be plus or minus 1.79 per cent, 19 times out of 20.

National Post

cnardi@postmedia.com

Get more deep-dive National Post political coverage and analysis in your inbox with the Political Hack newsletter, where Ottawa bureau chief Stuart Thomson and political analyst Tasha Kheiriddin get at what’s really going on behind the scenes on Parliament Hill every Wednesday and Friday, exclusively for subscribers. Sign up here.

Article content