According to a new Angus Reid poll done in the aftermath of Justin Trudeau’s black-brown face controversy, Liberal momentum softens as centre-left voters look again to Jagmeet Singh led NDP and the Greens as options. The Conservative Party is seeing no gains from last week. While the party’s loyal and motivated base remains steady, leader Andrew Scheer remains unable to persuade voters unhappy with Trudeau to look at the CPC.

By DESIBUZZCanada Staff

VANCOUVER – A new polls taken in the aftermath of t Justin Trudeau’s black-brown face controversy sees Liberal prospects darkening while centre-left voters looking at Jagmeet Singh led NDP and the Green party as options.

The question was not whether damning revelations that Trudeau had participated in the demeaning act of blackface (not once, but on at least three occasions) would hurt Liberal re-election prospects in this election campaign, but how much?

Canadian voters have now had the better part of a week to consider the prime minister’s past behaviour and his subsequent apologies.

As a result, new polling data from the non-profit Angus Reid Institute exposes a vote landscape wherein the incumbent Liberals have once again yielded some support among a key demographics – younger voters – namely to the Green Party – and overall, in the battleground province of Quebec.

But while opinions of Trudeau have worsened and as the governing party once again sees its key left-of-centre base drift, other signs show the Liberals and their leader may have enough time to recover from this embarrassing disclosure.

To begin, the Conservative Party is seeing no gains from last week. While the party’s loyal and motivated base remains steady, leader Andrew Scheer remains unable to persuade voters unhappy with Trudeau to look at the CPC.

Further, Trudeau has given no ground on the key question of which of the two main party leaders would make best prime minister. And notably, the Liberals hold a slight lead in vote intention among Canadians who identify as visible minorities.

The outstanding questions heading into the third week of the campaign continue to be whether the Liberals can (once again) pull the left of centre base back together, and whether Trudeau, bruised a damaging week on the campaign trail, can convince younger voters to cast ballots come voting time.

More Key Findings:

*The Liberal Party has lost support in Quebec over the past week, but still hold a 12-point advantage in that province. In Ontario, vote intention remains near identical to last week, with the Liberals and CPC both garnering support from 35 per cent of voters, according to the Angus Reid poll

*As was the case one week ago, Trudeau and Scheer are locked in a statistical tie (52 versus 48 per cent respectively) on the question of which head of the two leading parties would of the best prospect for the top job

portion of their 2015 voting based in every poll since April of this year, the NDP has gained in vote retention after the blackface scandal. Half of 2015 New Democrats (51%) say they will support he party again, up from 44 per cent last week

Two polls released by Insights West this week found that the Conservative Party of Canada holds the lead in B.C. with 29 per cent of voter support in both surveys, compared to 17 and 19 per cent for the Liberals, reported CBC News.

The NDP registered at 14 per cent support in both polls, with 13 and 14 per cent for for the Greens.

When asked if they generally approve or disapprove of the way each party leader has performed their job, the Green Party’s Elizabeth May emerged with the highest approval rating — 51 per cent.

NDP leader Jagmeet Singh followed with a 46 per cent approval rating, Andrew Scheer of the Conservatives with 35 per cent and Justin Trudeau 34 per cent.

British Columbians rated the environment and climate change as the top issue facing the nation by a substantial margin (23 per cent) over personal income, wages and the cost of living (12 per cent) and housing prices and affordability (11 per cent).

However, a distinct split was detected when a respondent’s political affiliation was considered. Only two per cent of Conservative voters said climate change was the top issue, compared to 33 per cent of Liberals and 36 per cent of NDP voters.

Insights West president Steve Mossop says the results of the two polls indicate that the federal election is shaping up poorly for the reigning Liberal government in B.C., reported CBC News.

“Government handling of transparency, deficits, housing affordability, pipelines, and poverty and homelessness have hurt the current Liberal government, and the handling of the recent face-painting scandal means the Liberals have a rough ride ahead in this election campaign,” said Mossop.