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It was in July 2017 that Justin Trudeau graced the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, accompanied by the headline: “Why Can’t He Be Our President?”

Fast forward 18 months and Canada’s golden boy prime minister has seen his approval rating fall below that of the much-maligned U.S. president, Donald Trump.

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Real Clear Politics has a rolling average that gives Trump a negative 9.7 per cent rating (42 per cent of respondents in opinion polls approve of the president; 51.7 per cent disapprove).

According to a new Angus Reid Institute survey, Trudeau’s approval rating is a net negative 23 per cent (just 35 per cent approve; 58 per cent disapprove).

When he was elected in 2015, Trudeau had a net plus 34 per cent rating — nearly twice as many people approved of him then as do now.

The ARI poll is not the last word on the subject. It suggested Andrew Scheer is now considered best prime minister by more people than support Trudeau, a finding at odds with the latest Nanos Research poll on the same question (in the ARI survey, Scheer scored 33 per cent against Trudeau’s 27 per cent; in Nanos, Trudeau recorded 37.4 per cent, against Scheer’s 25.6 per cent). But, while the numbers may be up for debate, the trajectory of Trudeau’s fortunes is not.