Majority surveyed want Poilievre to get security clearance, Carney to disclose investments

Two thirds of Canadians back Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre getting a national security clearance, and nearly as many support Liberal Leader Mark Carney disclosing the scope and scale of his investments he recently put in a blind trust, according to a new national poll.

The opinion survey on the personal choices of these two leaders, conducted last weekend for The Globe and Mail and CTV News by Nanos Research, found 66 per cent of respondents wanted or somewhat supported Mr. Poilievre joining the other federal party leaders in obtaining this status so he can receive briefings on foreign interference from Canada’s national spy agency.

Asked about the need for more transparency regarding Mr. Carney’s wealth, 62.5 per cent were strongly or somewhat in favour of him showing the public which assets he put in the blind trust earlier this month.

Nik Nanos, chief data scientist at Nanos Research who began polling federal elections in the 1980s, said the results show most Canadians aren’t happy with the pair’s decisions on these respective issues to date.

“It’s a majority consistently across all regions and all demographic groups for both of these questions,” he said in an interview. “The stakes are so high right now for Canadians, they realistically really want to kick the tires of both of these leaders – they want to know whether there’s anything that would be a flag for either one of them.”

And, as two rival parties pitch voters on similar solutions to national and global problems, the way their two leaders respond to the concerns about the security clearance and nature of the blind trust could have an outsized impact on the election, Mr. Nanos said.

“In a world when there’s blurriness on the policy side for some of the big issues between the two main leaders, stuff like this actually makes a difference,” said Mr. Nanos, who is also a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington. “If one of them moved forward on their issue, it would probably put pressure on their opponent to do the same.”

Neither the Liberals nor the Conservatives immediately responded to a request for comment Monday on the new poll.

Mr. Poilievre has been dogged by his refusal to obtain a top-secret clearance to receive confidential briefings since last June, after the release of a report by the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians, which said some parliamentarians are collaborating with foreign governments such as China and India to advance their own interests. NSICOP also alleged that Beijing and New Delhi interfered in Conservative leadership races.

Mr. Poilievre has refused to apply for the security clearance necessary to read the unredacted report, saying the obligations of a clearance would restrict his ability to discuss and hold the government to account.

Last week, he told reporters he soundly won the 2022 Conservative leadership “fair and square” without any help from India, while the leaders of the Liberals, NDP and Bloc Québécois again criticized him for refusing to obtain the clearance.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service did not share information on agents of India and their proxies raising money and organizing within the South Asian community for Mr. Poilievre, according to a Globe and Mail source who was not authorized to speak on the matter.

That was because, the source said, Mr. Poilievre is the only federal party leader who does not have the necessary security clearance to access secret documents and receive classified briefings on foreign-interference activities in Canada.

Meanwhile, Mr. Carney has so far refused to publicly declare the value and details of his holdings, saying he entered political life for the good of the country and not to enrich himself.

Mr. Carney’s team has said that he currently does not own anything outside of the blind trust other than cash and real estate. But he has not disclosed the value of the assets, nor what was divested. No details were provided as to what potential conflicts of interest would be subject to the management plan of the blind trust.

Instead, the former governor of the Bank of Canada and of the Bank of England, who recently stepped down as chair of the board of media and financial data company Bloomberg LP, has filed a confidential report to the federal Ethics Commissioner.

This means that Canadians would not know what potential conflicts of interest exist until after the coming election.

Nanos Research surveyed 1,200 Canadians aged 18 and over through land line, cellphone and online. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

Respondents were asked if they supported: “Liberal Leader Mark Carney disclosing the value and details of his financial assets that he put in a blind trust after winning the Liberal leadership” and “Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre getting a national security clearance, as other federal party leaders have done, so he can receive briefings on foreign interference from the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service.”

The full methodology for all surveys can be found at tgam.ca/polls.