OTTAWA—If Justin Trudeau is elected Liberal leader this month, he still has to convince about half of Canadians that he’s qualified to be prime minister, a new poll shows.

With Conservatives reportedly set to attack Trudeau’s fitness for office and his claims to speak for the middle class, Forum Research asked more than 1,300 Canadians about how they viewed the qualifications of the 41-year-old former teacher and son of the former prime minister.

While 48 per cent said Trudeau was qualified to be prime minister, 37 per cent said he wasn’t and another 16 per cent said they didn’t know.

The people most likely to see him as having what it takes to fill the job are Liberals, predictably, but also women, Atlantic Canadians, university-educated people and also those earning between $20,000 and $40,000 a year.

New Democrats and Greens also seem open to seeing Trudeau as qualified — 49 per cent of NDP supporters and 52 per cent of Green voters say he is.

The skeptics about his fitness for office include Conservatives, with 67 per cent saying Trudeau lacked what it takes to be prime minister, as well as middle-income groups; people earning between $60,000 and $80,000 a year.

Conservative sources told the National Post this week that attack ads are set to be launched almost immediately if Trudeau wins the Liberal leadership as expected on April 14. The attacks, the sources said, will cast Trudeau as someone “not ready” to govern.

That message could land with some impact among people aged 45-54, the Forum poll showed, with 45 per cent of respondents in that age group saying Trudeau lacked the qualifications to be prime minister and only 41 per cent saying he did. This is the age group that tends to vote in larger numbers than those between 18 and 44, who are more likely to see Trudeau as qualified, according to Forum.

The poll also asked whether wealthy politicians were in a position to represent interests of people who weren’t wealthy — a charge levelled controversially against Trudeau by one of his fellow leadership contenders, Martha Hall Findlay, during a debate in February. (Hall Findlay later apologized.)

About half of respondents, especially people over 65 and in higher income brackets, agreed that the wealthy could represent the less wealthy. The people most likely to disagree were New Democrats and people in the lower income brackets.

The poll was conducted through an interactive voice response survey with 1,310 randomly selected Canadians on Tuesday. Results based on the total sample are considered accurate within three percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

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