A new study from the non-profit Angus Reid Institute digs deep into the public opinion archives to measure how Prime Minister Justin Trudeau compares to his predecessors as he approaches the eight-year mark of his time as prime minister.

Trudeau’s 40 per cent approval rate is higher than many of his peers at a similar point in service, but well behind the most popular PM of the last five decades.

In fact, only Prime Minister Jean Chrétien surpasses Trudeau since the 1970s, doing so by a considerable margin. Chrétien maintained a 54 per cent approval in December 2001, eight full years after his election.

Trudeau’s current approval mark is four-points higher than former Prime Minister Stephen Harper (36%) and eight points higher than his father Pierre Elliot Trudeau (32%), both of whom had their approval measured in the eighth year of their tenure by Gallup Canada.

For the younger Trudeau, his current level of approval (40%) has been consistent over the past year. So too is the number who “strongly disapprove” (40%) of his performance.

The largest demographic dividing line continues to be gender. Approval among men comes in at just over one-in-three (36%), with consistency across age groups. Women offer approval at a rate of more than two-in-five (43%), rising to 48 per cent among women over the age of 54.

Trudeau’s base remains solid, though not a monolith – as 81 per cent of past Liberal voters offer him praise – and approval hovers around a majority level (53%) among past NDP voters, whose party has been supporting the Liberals in a supply and confidence agreement since the 2021 election.

Meantime, disapproval among 2021 Conservative voters is near unanimous at 90 per cent.

Link to the poll here: www.angusreid.org/