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Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poièvre and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attend Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) ceremonies at the National Holocaust Memorial in Ottawa on May 6.Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press
This attracted attention. Last week, the Angus Reid Institute released an analysis that says the leaders of Canada's major federal political parties have never been seen in such a dark light. It is based on analysis of 50 years of public opinion data.
According to the survey, this is the first time that all three major Federalist party leaders have received online ratings of -12 or higher at the same time.
The -12 rating (meaning the disapproval rating is many points higher than the approval rating) belongs to Conservative Party leader Pierre Poièvre. By today's standards, that's actually a good rating. NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh had his worst ranking in history at -14. The survey also points out that “Prime Minister Trudeau's approval rating has fallen to its lowest point, at just 28%, with a net approval rating of -38.”
Usually at least one party boss is well-liked. “However, our rifts and divisive politics appear to have created an era in which all leaders can remain below the surface at the same time,” the study declared.
What this paper fails to point out is that our leaders would be less embarrassed if they looked overseas. Their low status is not unusual and is common everywhere, especially for heads of state.
For example, what are the leaders of other G7 countries doing? According to Morning Consult, Britain's Rishi Sunak has a brutal approval rating of 26%, while France's Emmanuel Macron has a pitiful 23%. Germany's Olaf Scholz, 22, is even worse. Japan's Fumio Kishida is even worse at 17%.
By comparison, U.S. President Joe Biden's approval rating of 39 percent sounds impressive. In fact, this is one of the worst first term presidents in history.
Ruchir Sharma, president of Rockefeller International, studies the approval ratings of leaders in 20 major countries. “No leader in the developed world has a rating above 50 percent,” he wrote in the Financial Times. In the 2020s, only one country (Italy) received recognition for its leadership. ”
There are many reasons for this low ranking, including inflation, rising inequality, and slowing growth in average per capita income, but we are not in the midst of a global recession or Great Depression. Economic conditions have worsened in the past in Canada and elsewhere.
Mr. Trudeau's low standing is due to the housing crisis, inflation, immigration, and government incompetence as seen, for example, in the ArriveCan app scandal. Similarly, there is also a fatigue factor since he has been in power for almost nine years.
But for him and other leaders, we are forgetting the elephant in the room: the burden of navigating the online era. Often mentioned, but not emphasized enough. Thanks to the internet and social media, political leaders are exposed to far more vocal attacks than they faced in the pre-digital era.
For the unparalleled negativity blanketing our politics, look no further than the naysayers, cynics, detractors, and haters who have been handed the microphone thanks to this communications revolution. It has catalyzed the spread of disinformation, the rise of the far right and left, the decline of dialogue, extreme polarization, the erosion of trust in mainstream media, and the erosion of trust in institutions.
Because communication systems have become rigged, national leaders (and to a lesser extent local and civic leaders) are no longer able to influence, shape, and control messages as they once did. They are increasingly vulnerable to torrents of abuse.
Compare the environment Prime Minister Justin Trudeau faces to that of his father. In Pierre Trudeau's era, there was no internet or relentless social media attacks. The hard right wing was barely present, and the conservatives were more moderate conservatives. CBC, which has a more liberal bent, had much higher ratings. The right-wing Sun chain had not yet expanded, and conservative Postmedia had not yet been born.
The same can be said about the level of resentment Biden faces compared to before.
Governor-General Mary Simon spoke out this week in response to so much online criticism that she was forced to turn off her social media accounts. She says boundaries need to be set against the culture of insults created by the internet.
That's a lonely hope. Efforts to establish boundaries are underway, but there is no turning back from what the digital age, which initially seemed democratically promising, has unleashed.
We are trapped in a system where negative voices have a disproportionate impact. Authoritarian leaders with online control can gain great favor through coercion (Vladimir Putin, anyone?). There will continue to be a dark atmosphere in our politics.
