O’Toole seen as winner of English Federal Election debate, while Trudeau seen as winner of French debate by small margin

Toronto, September 11, 2021 – A nation-wide poll conducted by Forum Research on September 10^th among eligible Canadian voters shows that the majority of Canadians were aware of the federal election debates.  When asked, 57% of Canadians said they were aware of the French debate, which took place on September 8^th, and 66% of Canadians said they were aware of the English debate, which took place on September 9^th.

Erin O’Toole was seen as the winner of the English debate, with 29% of Canadians viewing him as having won. Trudeau lagged behind, with 17% of Canadians viewing him as the winner, followed by Jagmeet Singh (10%), Annamie Paul (7%) and Yves-François Blanchet (7%).

Trudeau, however, took a slight lead in the French debate, with 22% viewing him as the winner. O’Toole placed second, with 18% viewing him as having won, followed closely by Yves-François Blanchet (17%), Jagmeet Singh (7%) and Annamie Paul (3%).

In contrast to the national perspective, Francophones viewed Blanchet’s performance much more favourably, with 37% viewing him as having won the French debate, followed by Trudeau (23%), O’Toole (9%), Singh (5%) and Paul (1%). This aligned closely with the views of Quebec, with 35% of Quebecers viewing Blanchet as having won, followed by Trudeau (21%), O’Toole (11%), Singh (5%) and Paul (1%).

The results also suggest that the debate had little influence on who Canadians are voting for. When asked if anything in the debates made them consider changing their vote, 81% of Canadians said no.

The poll was conducted by Forum Research with the results based on an interactive voice response telephone survey of 1,579 randomly selected eligible voters across Canada. The poll was conducted on Sept 10^th, 2021. Results based on the total sample are considered accurate +/- 3%, 19 times out of 20. Subsample and regional results will be less accurate.  Margins of error for subsample and regional results are available at www.forumresearch.com/samplestim.asp.

This research is not necessarily predictive of future outcomes, but rather captures opinion at one point in time. The poll was sponsored by Forum Research Inc. as a public service. With offices across Canada and around the world, 100% Canadian owned Forum Research is one of the country’s leading survey research firms.

Forum Research follows the CRIC Public Opinion Research Standards and Disclosure Requirements that can be found here:  https://canadianresearchinsightscouncil.ca/standards/