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Trudeau has 'no solid plan' to tackle inflation, Canadians say: Yahoo/Maru poll

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gives a statement on June 28, 2022 at Elmau Castle, southern Germany, at the end of the G7 Summit. (Photo by John MACDOUGALL / AFP) (Photo by JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP via Getty Images)
55 per cent of Canadians said Trudeau has no solid plan to fight inflation and bring prices down. (Photo by JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP via Getty Images) (JOHN MACDOUGALL via Getty Images)

A majority of Canadians believe Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland have "no solid plan" to tackle inflation and rein in prices, a new Yahoo/Maru Public Opinion poll has found.

According to the survey of 1,515 Canadians, 55 per cent said Trudeau has no solid plan to fight inflation and bring prices down, while 20 per cent said he has a "good plan" and another 25 per cent said he has a "bad plan."

At the same time, 55 per cent of Canadians said they believe Freeland does not have a solid plan to fight inflation and bring prices down, while 21 per cent said she has a "good plan" and 24 per cent said she had a "bad plan."

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The results come amid growing concerns about Canada's inflation rate and a potential economic recession.

Freeland has said that Canada still has a path to a "soft landing" where it could stabilize economically after the blow by the COVID-19 pandemic without facing a severe recession.

"I have to strike a balance. One is supporting Canadians with affordability challenges and the other is fiscal restraint, because I don't want to make the Bank of Canada's job harder than it already is," Freeland said on CBC's Rosemary Barton Live program.

Inflation surged to 7.7 per cent in May, according to Statistics Canada, surpassing analyst expectations and marking the largest annual increase since Jan. 1983.

Rising prices have put pressure on the Bank of Canada to hike rates rapidly, cool demand and bring inflation back to its target range of between one and three per cent.

But Canadians appear to feel unsure about the central bank's plan to control inflation. The Yahoo/Maru Public Opinion survey found that 35 per cent of Canadians believe the Bank of Canada has a "good plan" to tackle inflation, another 36 per cent believe it has "no solid plan", while 29 per cent believe it has a "bad plan."

Canadians are split on what they believe is the key driving force behind inflation. The poll found that 23 per cent believe profit taking by companies and speculators is the key contributor to inflation, followed by supply chain issues caused by COVID-19 (17 per cent), the impact of the war in Ukraine (16 per cent), price hikes to compensate the COVID-19 slowdown (14 per cent) and energy shortages and restrictions (12 per cent).

The Yahoo/Maru Public Opinion survey of 1,515 Canadian adults was conducted between June 25 and June 26 and has an estimated margin of error of +/- 2.5 per cent, 19 times out of 20.

Alicja Siekierska is a senior reporter at Yahoo Finance Canada. Follow her on Twitter @alicjawithaj.

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