Comparing Vladimir Putin's Popularity to Western Leaders

In a previous posting, I looked at how Canada's Ambassador to Russia, Sarah Taylor, viewed Russians' sentiment toward their leader, Vladimir Putin and how he was just a short step from being tossed out of office.  In this posting, I want to compare President Putin's popularity to that of some key Western leaders and see who is really admired by their citizenry. 

 

Recent polling from Russia's  non-politically aligned Levada Center shows us that Vladimir Putin is still highly regarded by Russians: 

 

In December 2024, Putin's approval rating among his fellow Russians was 87 percent.

 

Now, in sharp contrast, let's look at the popularity of Justin Trudeau, Canada's Prime Minister (for now) and Ambassador Taylor's boss:

 

Currently, only 22 percent of Canadians approve of Justin Trudeau's performance, an all-time low.  By party, Trudeau's Liberals would receive only 16 percent of votes, another all-time low which would result in the party garnering only 6 out of the 338 seats in Canada's House of Parliament.

 

Here's a summary of polls showing Joe Biden's approval rating:

 

 

Just over 37 percent of Americans approve of Biden's performance.

  

Here is a graphic showing the popularity of France's President Emmanuel Macron:

Only 23 percent of France's voters approve of Macron's performance, a near-record low.

Now, let's look at the approval rating of U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer:

 

Only 27 percent of Brits are satisfied with Starmer's performance and only 21 percent are satisfied with the performance of his government.

While I don't have a graphic to show, polling in September 2024 showed that only 18 percent of Germans were satisfied with the performance of their Chancellor Olaf Scholz as quoted here:

One might almost think that the nations leading the battle against Putin's Russia find themselves with leaders that they wish to rid themselves of on a permanent basis.  I'm guessing that many of the West's leaders, many of whom are of the Neo-liberal persuasion, would kill for the very high approval numbers that Vladimir Putin is receiving from his fellow Russians.

The End of the Trudeau Era and How Liberal Party History Repeats Itself

With the door in Ottawa finally hitting Justin Trudeau in the ass and the Liberal Party already moving toward distancing itself from his dystopian legacy by rebranding itself as "The Anti-Trudeau Party", a look back at history is quite pertinent.

  

If we go back to March 1983, Canadian journalist Jack Webster interviewed then Progressive Conservative and Opposition leader Brian Mulroney about the Pierre Trudeau government and his potential replacement, John Turner who took over the role in June 1984:

 

Here's the exchange with my bold:

 

Webster - But when they bring Turner out of the closet he too is the perfect candidate.  He can beat you in a way.  

 

Mulroney - Oh no he can't.  I'll tell you this Jack, it's going to take more than a cosmetic change at the last minute by the Liberal Party to change the thinking of this country.

I don't want to talk about Mr. Turner or Mr. MacDonald or any one in particular but let me tell you this.  The damage and the and the sadness that have been inflicted on the Canadian people by the actions of a Liberal government for the last 15 years are so substantial that it's going to take infinitely more than a cosmetic little change and a little typical Liberal shuffle at the last minute, one of their as they're called in Quebec 'un stunt'.  You know one of the great stunts the Liberals are capable of it's going to take infinitely more than that to change the minds of the Canadian people about a government which has absolutely devastated this country."

 

We can only hope that Canadian voters don't forget the Trudeau legacy.

 

This "stunt" is exactly the playbook that the post-Trudeau potential candidates for leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada are going to use, particularly former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland who, in her resignation letter already has distanced herself from her own fiscal agenda which saw Canada's debt rise from $923.8 billion in September 2020 when she took office to $1.501 trillion in 2024 when she left office.  I'm betting that she won't bring that subject up while she's running to replace her old boss.

 

Former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney's words would appear to be prophetic.  The Liberal Party of Canada will do its best to apply a pretty coat of lipstick on the pig that they have created for Canadians since they took control of Canada in October 2015.  All we can hope is that Canadian voters don't forget their real legacy; out-of-control housing prices and rent, higher taxes including the carbon tax, a health care system that is on life support and, let's not forget, their move to freeze Canadians who disagreed with their agenda out of the banking system.

 

The Conservative Party of Canada and its Real Policies on Abortion

With polls showing that the current Liberal/NDP government appearing to be on the brink of a complete electoral disaster, the Liberals (in particular) are rolling out their usual anti-Conservative/anti-Poilievre fear-mongering, specifically when it comes women's bodily autonomy.

 

I would respectfully suggest that the best way to understand the Conservative Party of Canada's views on abortion would be to go directly to the source material; the Conservative Party of Canada's Policy Declaration which was amended by the delegates attending the party's National Convention on September 9, 2023 noting that I have archived the document on the Wayback Machine for posterity as you can find here:

 

The word "abortion" is mentioned several times in the document and we will look at each in turn:

 

On page 5, we find this:

 

Under the Conservative's free voting policy, Conservative MPs would be allowed to vote on abortion (among other matters) based on what their constituents wish.  This is the way that Parliament should operate with MPs voting based on the beliefs of their voters rather than being forced to vote along party lines.

 

On page 22, we find this:

 

A Conservative government will allow medical professionals to refuse to participate in or refer their patients for abortion if it goes against their personal convictions.

  

On page 24, the Conservative Party states its position on the delivery of Canadian foreign aid for maternal and child health programs in relation to abortion:

 

Note that the Conservative Party does not state that abortion should be banned in nations where Canadian taxpayers fund maternal and child health programs, rather that abortion should not be included in the programs supported by this aid since it is a divisive and potentially illegal issue in recipient nations.

  

Lastly, on page 23, we find the Conservative Party's bottom line on the abortion issue:

 

Let's repeat that for emphasis:

"A Conservative Government will not support any legislation to regulate abortion."

The Conservative Party of Canada's view on abortion really does not get any clearer than that, does it?

As many have noted, when the Liberals get desperate, they drag out the tired old mantra that a Conservative government is going to put an end to women's rights to abortions (aka bodily autonomy).  Given what you have now seen in this posting, rather that just believing what the soon-to-be opposition parties have to say about Poilievre and abortion, perhaps you will keep this in mind when you hear the left-leaning, Trudeau-supported mainstream media in Canada and MPs outside of the Conservative Party of Canada mindlessly repeat what their leaders tell them to communicate with Canadians about the Conservative ban on abortion.  Certainly, it is possible that, in the future, the Conservative Party could change its policy on abortion, however, this action would be done with significant political risk since it would alienate many voters who voted for the Conservative Party based on the current abortion policies.

 

As an aside, when it comes to bodily autonomy for Canadian women, it's rather ironic that Canadian women didn't have the right to refuse to accept the Glorious COVID Vaccine without consequences up to and including loss of employment thanks to the "freedom-loving" Trudeau Liberals.

Canada's Ambassador to Russia and the Next Russian Revolution

This article recently appeared in the Globe and Mail, Canada's once great newspaper of record:

 

Sarah Taylor is Canada's current ambassador to Russia and a Trudeau government appointment effective November 15th, 2023 as shown here:

 

Let's go back to Sarah Taylor and the Globe and Mail.  Here is a quote from the article:

 

"To be Canada’s ambassador to Russia these days is to be both officially ignored and constantly watched.

 

The Russian Foreign Ministry holds regular briefings for foreign diplomats but doesn’t invite those from the countries it considers “unfriendly” – a list of more than two dozen, mostly Western, nations that Canada has been on since soon after the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Diplomats from countries on the “unfriendly” list are also skipped for Christmas and New Year’s party invitations.

 

Meanwhile, Sarah Taylor – Canada’s 17th ambassador to Moscow – and her staff experience regular surveillance, as well as staged demonstrations berating Canada for its assistance to Ukraine since Russia invaded its smaller neighbour in February, 2022.

 

“I would say there is a somewhat hostile atmosphere. That’s not new, although it has intensified since the invasion of Ukraine,” Ms. Taylor said in a video interview from Moscow. “The feel, for a Canadian or Western diplomat, is quite Cold War-like, with one exception – that there are a lot of Eastern European countries that are now part of NATO and not part of the Warsaw Pact....

 

The Kremlin, meanwhile, almost completely ignores the Canadian embassy, other than on low-level issues such as consular cases.”

I hate to tell Ambassador Taylor but she's not in Moscow to attend Christmas and New Year's parties put on by Russians.  If she is that unhappy with her new posting, perhaps she should retire from her cozy and comfortable life in one of the most dynamic cities in the world.

 

I'm not exactly certain why Ms. Taylor expects a warm welcome from Russia given that Canada has, for all intents and purposes, declared war on Russia and "donated" $5.55 billion in financial allocations, $520 million in humanitarian aid and $2.41 billion in military assistance (current to October 31, 2024 - U.S. dollars) for a total of $8.48 billion, putting the nation in sixth place overall after the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Germany and Japan.  Here is a sampling of the military assistance that Canada has provided to Ukraine:

Here is a complete list of military equipment that Canada has supplied to Ukraine since February 2022 should you care to understand what type of obsolete equipment the Trudeau government has offloaded.   As well, the Trudeau government is looking at the possibility of donating formerly legal guns that have been forcibly confiscated from law-abiding Canadians to Ukraine as shown here:

Let's go back to Ambassador Taylor's whining.  One of the issues that she brings up is the supposed anti-Putin movement in Russia (with my bold):

 

"Being in Moscow allowed Ms. Taylor and other Western diplomats to join the thousands of Russians who came into the streets on March 1 to mourn opposition leader Alexey Navalny, who died in an Arctic prison camp in what Mr. Navalny’s allies see as the Kremlin-ordered murder of Mr. Putin’s most prominent critic.

 

Standing outside the church, Ms. Taylor noticed that the crowd became braver as it grew in numbers. Soon, anti-war and anti-Putin chants were echoing through the streets of Moscow.

 

That convinced Ms. Taylor that there was very little genuine affection for Mr. Putin or enthusiasm for his war in Ukraine. While Russia has seen little in the way of public dissent since Mr. Navalny’s funeral, Ms. Taylor believes things could change in a hurry."

  

Here's the key quote:

 

“Everything seems quiet now, but in the right circumstances and with the right leader you could see Russians coalesce quite suddenly,” she said. “Like with Syria, like with all these authoritarian regimes, everything is fine until it isn’t.”

 

That comment would appear to me to be completely undiplomatic at best.  She obviously has very little understanding of the culture of the nation in which she is currently living and what a significant impact the Second World War had on their national identity.  Having spent time in Russia, you cannot understand their culture through the lens of Western eyes.

 

While she may be swallowing the line that Putin is only clinging to power, recent polling from Russia's  Levada Center would show otherwise:

 

 

In December 2024, Putin's approval rating among his fellow Russians was 87 percent.

 

So, while Canada's Ambassador to Russia claims that Russians are being mean to her and that the citizens of her host nation are just a very short step away from a potential overthrow of their allegedly unpopular President, it would appear that this is nothing more and nothing less than Western mainstream media anti-Russia propaganda.  Quite frankly, I'm surprised that Sarah Taylor's comment on the next "Russian Revolution" hasn't found her ejected unceremoniously from her cushy job in Moscow and deported back to Canada.