Trudeau visits Cosmodome, Montreal synagogue as poll numbers slip

Federal Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau looks at a model of a planet during a visit to the Cosmodome Tuesday, July 21, 2015 in Laval, Que. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz

While Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau spent Tuesday afternoon at Laval’s Cosmodome looking up to the stars, new poll numbers show his party much closer to earth.

A Leger poll that came out on Monday showed in Quebec, the NDP currently has 37 per cent support, ahead of the Conservatives’ 23 per cent and Bloc Quebecois at 19 per cent. The Liberals came in fourth with just 18 per cent.

Nationally, the news isn’t any better, with the NDP and Tories tied at 32 per cent and 25 per cent for the Liberals.

Despite what the polls are suggesting, Trudeau says he is confident that his party can win over Canadians.

“This is going to be a very exciting election and Canadians are going to look at the different plans and different visions,” said Trudeau during the Cosmodome visit. “I really look forward to being able to continue to roll up my sleeves and work door-to-door across this country to remind Canadians that politics doesn’t have to about negativity and division and attack.”

Trudeau critiqued the Conservatives' recent hike in child care benefit cheques, saying the policy benefits Canada’s wealthiest families instead of helping the middle class. The Liberal leader maintains it's wrong to give the benefit to wealthy families that don't need help raising their kids. And to underscore that point, he's going to give his own family's windfall to charity.

With three young children, one under the age of six, Trudeau is entitled to collect annual UCCB payments of about $3,400. In an interview Tuesday, he said he'll give that money to La Maison Bleue, a charitable group in his Montreal riding devoted to helping vulnerable women during pregnancy and the early days of motherhood.

He said under the Liberal plan, any family making less than $150,000 per year would get more, a policy that would be paid for by cutting the benefit entirely to families making more than $200,000 per year.

Given the numbers, some analysts say Trudeau is changing tactics and starting to target Thomas Muclair instead of Stephen Harper.

“Justin Trudeau may need to be careful in how he does it in Quebec, because Tom Mulcair is a very popular person in Quebec. It's easier to attack the person that you know is not as popular, which is Stephen Harper,” said Sebastien Dallaire, vice president of public affairs at Leger Marketing.

There is a town-hall meeting planned for Trudeau and Liberal Mount Royal candidate Anthony Housefather this evening at 7:30 at the Shaare Zion synagogue on Cote St. Luc Rd.

Mount Royal is considered a Liberal stronghold -- Trudeau's father once held the riding -- but many believe Robert Libman, former provincial politican, pundit, and recently-crowned Conservative candidate in the riding may make the race tighter than usual.

-- with files from The Canadian Press