LILLEY: Justin Trudeau lashes out on abortion amid wave of bad polls

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Justin Trudeau reached back into the Liberal bag of tricks on Saturday and warned that only he can protect access to abortion.

Not that there is any pressing move to change the legal status of abortion in Canada, but Trudeau has had some bad polling numbers of late, so he obviously wants to scare as many voters as possible.

A Leger poll conducted for Postmedia shows the Conservatives maintaining their 20 point lead over the Liberals. If an election were held today, Pierre Poilievre and the Conservatives would take 44% of the popular vote, Justin Trudeau and the Liberals would take 24%, and Jagmeet Singh and the NDP 17%.

What’s more 64% say they disapprove of Trudeau’s performance as prime minister compared to just 28% who approve.

Meanwhile, 62% of the country believe Trudeau should quit as PM and Liberal Party leader, including 33% of Liberals, with just 23% of Canadians saying he should stay on.

Leger isn’t the only company with bad polling news for Trudeau.

David Coletto, the CEO of Abacus Data, posted a graphic to social media showing that when Quebec is removed from the equation, things get even worse for the Liberals.

In the rest of Canada, the Conservatives are taking 50% of the vote according to Abacus, the NDP is in second with 22%, and the Liberals are in third with just 19% support.

Meanwhile, an Angus Reid poll released on Tuesday gave the Poilievre Conservatives a 22-point lead nationally – 43% for the CPC, 21% for the LPC and 20% for the NDP.

What was truly interesting about the Angus Reid poll was their comparison of Liberal fortunes in urban centres where the Liberals normally perform well. In Vancouver, Winnipeg, Toronto and Montreal the Liberals have seen a double-digit decline over the last two years.

The byelections in Toronto-St. Paul’s and LaSalle-Emard-Verdun where the Liberals lost were not one-offs.

According to this Angus Reid poll, the Liberals have dropped from 43% support in Toronto’s core in 2022 to just 33% support today. That puts the Liberals just behind the Conservatives who are tracking at 34% support in Toronto’s core.

In the suburbs of Toronto, the news is even worse for Trudeau and much better for Poilievre. Voters in the 905 region surrounding Toronto are leaning heavily blue with 45% saying they plan to vote Conservative compared to 31% backing the Liberals.

In Winnipeg, the Conservatives lead with 37% support, the NDP right behind them at 36%, and the Liberals well back in third at 23%.

It’s a similar story in Metro Vancouver where the Conservatives are well out in front and the Liberals trail badly in third. On Canada’s so-called “left-coast” the Conservatives have 40% support in the Vancouver area, 30% goes to the NDP and just 21% to the Liberals.

With numbers like this it’s no wonder that Trudeau is reaching into the Liberal bag of tricks to pull out the abortion card. Next he will be claiming that Poilievre has a hidden agenda and will try to bring “American-style” politics to Canada.

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In reality, it’s Trudeau dragging American politics into the Canadian realm as he always does in the face of bad news.

Over the next few weeks, we can even expect Trudeau to start comparing Poilievre to Donald Trump as the American presidential election takes centre stage in the news cycle. Trudeau and the Liberals have been trying to make that comparison for more than a year now and it’s fallen flat with voters who can see the claim is nothing but a Liberal lie.

Voters are increasingly tuning out and turning away from the Trudeau government. As that continues, expect more outrageous claims from Trudeau as he tries to scare voters back into the Liberal tent.

blilley@postmedia.com