Federal Conservative leader candidate Pierre Poilievre holds a campaign rally in Toronto on April 30. Chris Young/The Canadian Press
Stephen Harper’s endorsement of Pierre Poillievre as leader of the Conservative Party may have soured some voters’ opinion of the Ottawa MP, a new survey suggests.
The former Conservative prime minister recently said Mr Poilievre was his preferred choice of five candidates to lead the party.
But a new survey by Nanos Research commissioned by The Globe and Mail says Canadians are more than twice as likely to say that Mr. Harper’s support has given them a more negative impression of Mr. Poilievre than more positive.
The research is based on a telephone and online survey of 1,038 people conducted between July 29 and August 2 as part of an omnibus survey. The poll is considered accurate to plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
It found that 35 percent of respondents had a more negative impression of Mr. Poilievre because of the endorsement than 14 percent who had a more positive impression.
However, 46 percent said the endorsement did not affect their impression.
The question to respondents was: “Has Stephen Harper’s recent endorsement of Pierre Poillievre as a candidate for Conservative Party leader left you with a more positive impression, a more negative impression, or had no effect on your impression of Pierre Poillievre.”
Nick Nanos, chief data scientist and founder of Nanos Research, said the likely audience for the endorsement was members of the Conservative Party voting in the leadership race, but there could be spillovers beyond that race into the rest of the population.
“What will be interesting is the eventual Liberal response — a Poilievre victory with Harper’s support could create a progressive base during the next election,” Mr. Nanos said in a statement.
Jean Charest, Leslyn Lewis, Roman Baber and Scott Aitchison are also vying for the lead. Now the Conservatives are voting in the race. The winner will be announced in Ottawa on September 10.
The highest finding of a “more favorable impression” of Mr. Poilievre was in the Prairies at 22.1 percent. The highest finding of “more negative impression” was Ontario at 38.2%, closely followed by Quebec at 36.2%.
The most significant province with “no impact” is Quebec at 54.4 percent.
Mr. Harper was Prime Minister from 2006 to 2015. He is the only Prime Minister from the Conservative Party of Canada, which was formed in 2003 through the merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada.
He supported Mr Poilievre in a video posted on Twitter on July 25.
Mr. Harper, who quit elected politics after his Conservatives were defeated by the Liberals in 2015, had not endorsed candidates in either the 2017 or 2020 leadership races.
However, he said Mr Poilievre had been a strong minister in his cabinets and that the leader candidate had been a strong critic of the opposition, was popular in the caucus and also with existing party members, and had brought new members into the party .
Mr Poilievre’s campaign said it had signed up around 311,000 members, bringing the Conservative Party to a total of 678,708 members, as a result of the signing up of members by leadership candidates.
“That’s how we’re going to win the next federal election,” Mr. Harper said, referring to Mr. Poilievre’s actions and positive attributes. “I think Pierre has made the strongest case that he is the man to do this.”
In response to Mr. Harper’s endorsement, Mr. Poilievre wrote that Mr. Harper has led Canada through turbulent economic times, balanced the budget and made life more affordable for Canadian families.
“I was proud to serve in his cabinet and honored to have his support in this leadership race,” he said in the tweet.
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