>In a poll fielded from January 9–14, 2026, Abacus measured Poilievre at 48% negative impressions — **the highest level of unfavourability for Poilievre since he took the reins of the CPC in 2022** — up five points since Abacus’ previous poll back in December.
>As for Poilievre’s positive impressions, they slipped from 39% to 35%. This adds up to a net appreciation of -13. By comparison, Mark Carney’s net rating stood at +13 in the same poll.
Canadians appear to dislike Pierre Poilievre more than they ever have, and although “but he hasn’t done anything” accurately describes the man’s whole political career, it’s not immediately obvious what recent development has produced his latest failure.
guy_incognito87 on
The CPC base are in a weird purgatory. Not only they want to win, they want to win with Poilievre. Unfortunately for them, he does not have wide enough support to pull off a victory.
At this point Poilievre has strong name recognition across Canada. I don’t see how Canadians just decide to change their mind and give him a chance. I think their best bet would be finding a new milquetoast leader. I don’t think the CPC base recognizes yet that the election of Trump turned the political landscape in this country completely upside down. Trump and the republicans will still be in power for another 3 years. They are going to dominate international news headlines with controversial stories.
pat4611 on
So essentially the CPC is hoping that Mark Carney has a massive scandal or the NDP elect a Jack Layton like figure as head of the party as long as they have Poilevre. Not sure if that’s a winning tragedy, but I suppose that’s maybe all they got
ESF-hockeeyyy on
Pierre has gotten by through his handlers’ excellent use of slapping lipstick on the pig to make him reasonably presentable for conservative consumption.
The party’s attachment to Pierre is very strange, if not very concerning. I’ve always wondered if the foreign influence we’ve heard about included Americans because of Jenni Bryne’s attachment to the MAGA arm and marketing tactics.
hardk7 on
Poilievre is likely to be viewed unfavorably as long as Trump is around. Trump is extremely unpopular in Canada of course and there’s a perceived association between Trump and PP. Poilievre can’t come out too hard against Trump because 50% of CPC voters seem to like Trump. So he’s stuck.
What’s interesting though is it appears the party support numbers are still very stable considering the escalating geopolitical climate. Polls aren’t yet indicating that the LPC could get over that majority line. Not public polls anyway. Who knows what the internals are showing.
5 Comments
>In a poll fielded from January 9–14, 2026, Abacus measured Poilievre at 48% negative impressions — **the highest level of unfavourability for Poilievre since he took the reins of the CPC in 2022** — up five points since Abacus’ previous poll back in December.
>As for Poilievre’s positive impressions, they slipped from 39% to 35%. This adds up to a net appreciation of -13. By comparison, Mark Carney’s net rating stood at +13 in the same poll.
Canadians appear to dislike Pierre Poilievre more than they ever have, and although “but he hasn’t done anything” accurately describes the man’s whole political career, it’s not immediately obvious what recent development has produced his latest failure.
The CPC base are in a weird purgatory. Not only they want to win, they want to win with Poilievre. Unfortunately for them, he does not have wide enough support to pull off a victory.
At this point Poilievre has strong name recognition across Canada. I don’t see how Canadians just decide to change their mind and give him a chance. I think their best bet would be finding a new milquetoast leader. I don’t think the CPC base recognizes yet that the election of Trump turned the political landscape in this country completely upside down. Trump and the republicans will still be in power for another 3 years. They are going to dominate international news headlines with controversial stories.
So essentially the CPC is hoping that Mark Carney has a massive scandal or the NDP elect a Jack Layton like figure as head of the party as long as they have Poilevre. Not sure if that’s a winning tragedy, but I suppose that’s maybe all they got
Pierre has gotten by through his handlers’ excellent use of slapping lipstick on the pig to make him reasonably presentable for conservative consumption.
The party’s attachment to Pierre is very strange, if not very concerning. I’ve always wondered if the foreign influence we’ve heard about included Americans because of Jenni Bryne’s attachment to the MAGA arm and marketing tactics.
Poilievre is likely to be viewed unfavorably as long as Trump is around. Trump is extremely unpopular in Canada of course and there’s a perceived association between Trump and PP. Poilievre can’t come out too hard against Trump because 50% of CPC voters seem to like Trump. So he’s stuck.
What’s interesting though is it appears the party support numbers are still very stable considering the escalating geopolitical climate. Polls aren’t yet indicating that the LPC could get over that majority line. Not public polls anyway. Who knows what the internals are showing.