Amid the selfies and the sunny ways, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s federal government has been confronted with some big questions: Money and deficits. War and peace. Life and death.

A new poll suggests that, in direction if not every detail, it is largely in tune with Canadians.

The Forum Research poll found that 49 per cent of Canadians would vote Liberal if an election were held today, producing a “super-majority” of more than 70 per cent of the seats in Parliament.

The support is so impressive that Lorne Bozinoff, president of Forum Research, said it might be time to stop referring to ongoing Liberal popularity as a mere honeymoon.

“It’s gone on far too long to be a brief post-electoral crush,” he said.

To be sure, the Liberals have been aided in their first months in office by the disarray and distraction of the opposition Conservatives and NDP.

While the poll found the Conservatives, under interim leader Rona Ambrose, to have the backing of a solid core of 32 per cent of Canadians, the NDP — about to cast judgment on the leadership of Tom Mulcair at an April convention in Edmonton — has plummeted to 10 per cent.

The New Democrats, who topped 100 seats only five years ago under the late Jack Layton, would be reduced to a paltry six seats if an election were held today, the poll said.

Rarely does a Canadian leader enjoy the level and duration of support that Trudeau does. His party is dominant in every area of the country except Alberta and the Prairies.

Two-thirds of Canadians — more than voted for the Liberals — say they are satisfied with the outcome of the October 2015 election, with more than one-third reporting that they are “very satisfied.”

The poll also gauged support for some of the thornier issues the Liberals have dealt with and continue to face.

On one of the rare issues that doesn’t split along ideological lines, 70 per cent approve of the 2015 Supreme Court ruling that declared unconstitutional the Criminal Code ban against assisted suicide, Bozinoff said.

A joint Commons-Senate committee, led by Toronto MP Rob Oliphant, is to report next week to Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould with a framework for a new assisted-dying law, which is to be enacted by June.

In terms of spending, the poll suggests the Liberal government is on a tighter leash. About half of those surveyed approved of three years of deficit spending — which the Liberals had proposed during their successful election campaign — with 36 per cent opposed.

But opposition grew to almost 60 per cent at the prospect raised in one recent bank report of deficits totaling $90 billion by the end of the Liberal mandate.

On the change in Canada’s mission in the Mideast from bombing to training foreign fighters and providing humanitarian aid, 48 per cent approved while 36 per cent disapproved.

In all, the poll’s findings suggest the federal government is on the right side of the times and enjoys significant goodwill among Canadians.

“It has now been 100 days since the Trudeau government took power,” Bozinoff said.

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“And the prime minister has the kind of electoral support and approval that would make a despot blush.”

The survey of 1,406 randomly selected Canadian adults was conducted by interactive voice response between Feb. 16 and 17, 2016. Results are considered accurate plus or minus three percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

Some data has been statistically weighted by age, region and other variables to ensure the sample reflects the actual population as reflected in census data. Poll results are housed in the data library of the University of Toronto political science department.

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