In recent weeks, a familiar explanation has taken hold in political commentary: the Conservative Party would be doing better if someone other than Pierre Poilievre were leading it. After this week’s difficult byelections that assertion has become expectedly louder from columnists, commentators, and from the chattering class.
It is absolutely an intuitive theory. It’s also one that can be tested, and Abacus Data’s most recent national survey of 2,022 Canadians, conducted August 21 to 26, offers a way to do that.
