With just over a month to go before the first ballot for the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC), a majority of Canadians (33%) seem to prefer Jean Charest, while the Conservatives seem to be leaning towards Pierre Poilievre ( 49%).
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This is revealed by an Ipsos poll, released on Sunday. The percentage of positive opinions of Conservative voters for Mr. Charest is up 18 percentage points since the last poll in April.
The percentage of negative opinions towards Mr. Poilievre is up nine percentage points.
“As the race continues to get tighter, especially at the top, more and more Conservative voters have spoken out about the candidates still in the race. The proportion of those who do not know them enough has decreased by 13% on average,” the polling firm said in a statement.
Across the country, Mr. Charest has a percentage of favorable opinions eight points higher than his opponent from Alberta.
“However, greater knowledge of the candidates did not necessarily increase their support. Unfavorable opinions increased for all candidates, except Jean Charest who maintained his position. Scott Aitchison (4), Roman Baber (2) and Jean Charest (6) all improved, while those of Pierre Poilievre (-2) declined while Leslyn Lewis remained stable,” added Ipsos.
For this survey, a sample of 1,001 Canadians aged 18 and over was interviewed on July 12 and 13, 2022. Quotas and weighting were used to ensure that the composition of the sample reflected that of the Canadian population according to census parameters.
