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While most Liberal and NDP voters think Harper was “not great,” he still has a strong base of Conservative supporters to help shore up his legacy, she said.

“There remain a significant segment of Canadians who stay right-of-centre and who would profess value for a lot of the policies that we saw during the Harper years,” including tax-cutting measures and the creation of the tax-free savings account, Kurl said.

Only five per cent of respondents thought history would judge Harper as an “outstanding” prime minister. But almost one-third of them said he was “average,” and another 18 per cent said he was an “above average” leader. That’s 52 per cent of Canadians who think Harper was average or better.

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On the other hand, 43 per cent of Canadians were disappointed by Harper’s performance: 18 per cent thought it was “below average,” and 25 per cent said it was “poor.”

The survey also asked Canadians what they think are the Conservatives’ biggest accomplishments. More than one third (36 per cent) said cutting the goods and services tax by two percentage points, while almost one quarter (24 per cent) praised the government’s balanced budgets in 2006-08, and in 2015.

Harper’s two greatest failures according to 27 per cent and 26 per cent respectively were pulling out of the Kyoto Accord and muzzling government scientists.

One quarter of Canadians believe that the accomplishments of the Harper government outweigh its failures, while 39 per cent hold the opposing view. But in the end, public opinion could go either way as almost one third (28 per cent) said it’s “too soon to tell” and another seven per cent “didn’t know.”