Most Canadians have heard about Freeland's resignation from Trudeau cabinet, new poll finds

Power Play: What Canadians are saying A new poll shows the majority of Canadians are aware of Freeland's resignation, and 67 per cent say Justin Trudeau should resign.

The majority of Canadians heard about Chrystia Freeland’s surprise resignation from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet, a new poll released Tuesday found.

According to the Abacus Data poll, 44 per cent of Canadians were following Freeland’s resignation either closely or fairly closely, while 39 per cent heard about it. Nineteen per cent of those polled said they did not hear about the news. The poll was conducted between 5 p.m. eastern Monday to Tuesday morning.

“In that short period of time, that's a pretty significant breakthrough for a story in Ottawa that is politics,” said Abacus Data CEO David Coletto in an exclusive interview on the new data with CTV’s Power Play on Tuesday.

The polling also said 67 per cent of Canadians think Trudeau should resign, while just 19 per cent believe he should stay on as Liberal leader.

“The fact that he could barely get one in five saying he should stay on is I think an indication for what we've known for a long time,” Coletto told host Vassy Kapelos. “The prime minister's own favourability, the satisfaction with his government and him personally were already at a pretty, pretty low.”

“I think yesterday's news just pushed a few extra people into the column that probably thought, okay, I think maybe time's up,” Coletto added.

On Monday – just hours before she was set to unveil the fall economic statement – Freeland announced she was stepping down as deputy prime minister and finance minister, dealing a major political blow to the prime minister.

In a scathing letter posted to X, Freeland said she and Trudeau were at odds over spending and how to deal with a potential 25 per cent tariff on all Canadian imports from the incoming Trump administration. The move prompted chaos across Parliament Hill, from the federal government scrambling to move ahead with a major economic announcement, to Trudeau's caucus convening an emergency meeting.

Prior to Freeland’s resignation, Trudeau had already been facing questions about his leadership for months amid lagging poll numbers. But Freeland is now the most prominent person within caucus to challenge him and the direction he is taking the federal government.

New Brunswick MP Wayne Long, who has been calling for Trudeau to step down, described Freeland as “our Nancy Pelosi” – comparing her to the former Democratic house speaker who was credited for helping pressure U.S. President Joe Biden to end his 2024 presidential race.

“For her to come out with a letter like that, as blunt as it was, as direct as it was, and in particular, the timing, really, I think was delivered that way to inflict maximum damage,” Long said in an interview with CTV’s Power Play on Tuesday. “It's a vote of non-confidence in the prime minister. It's a vote of non-confidence in our government.”

Former Liberal premier of Ontario Kathleen Wynne, meanwhile, said she hopes that decisions are made soon about Trudeau's next steps.

"We need to know who's leading the government. And right now, I think that the disarray is very distracting… Wherever one goes, this is the topic of conversation,” Wynne said during a panel on CTV’s Power Play Tuesday. “So people are engaged, but they're engaged because they're worried."

Methodology from Abacus Data

The survey was conducted with 1,186 Canadian adults from December 16 to 17, 2024. A random sample of panelists were invited to complete the survey from a set of partner panels based on the Lucid exchange platform.

The margin of error for a comparable probability-based random sample of the same size is +/- 2.9%, 19 times out of 20.

The data were weighted according to census data to ensure that the sample matched Canada’s population according to age, gender, educational attainment, and region. Totals may not add up to 100 due to rounding.

You can watch the full interview with Abacus Data CEO David Coletto at the top of the article.