The Writ’s Pollster Panel returned ahead of Parliament’s summer recess to assess how the spring went for Mark Carney, Pierre Poilievre, and Avi Lewis. The episode frames the season as a public-opinion success for Carney and the Liberals — a wide lead over the Conservatives and prime ministerial approval still above 50% — while asking what vulnerabilities Carney faces over the summer and what Poilievre can do to lift his party out of its polling slump.
The segment of direct relevance to this archive is the panel’s question of whether Avi Lewis has been “a boon or a bust for the NDP since becoming leader at the end of March.” The panel also weighed in on Alberta’s upcoming referendum on independence.
The panel featured Dan Arnold (chief strategy officer at Pollara, former Liberal pollster for the 2015, 2019, and 2021 campaigns), Andrew Enns (executive vice-president at Léger, who polled for the Conservatives in Stephen Harper’s last three campaigns), and James Valcke (director of research and strategy at Viewpoints Research, which has polled for the NDP and worked on Jack Layton’s 2011 breakthrough campaign).
This is a podcast episode; the post above contains the show notes. Audio is available at TheWrit.ca and on podcast apps, with a video version on YouTube. No transcript was published. Summary preserved here for reference.