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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau left 2017 on a downdraft. For the first time, more Canadians disapprove (49%) than approve (46%) of the job being done by him,according to a mid-December Angus Reid survey. Also worrying, only 32% said a change in government is not needed.

However, when Canadians are asked who they would vote for in an election held today, there is little change from the 2015 election results. That may seem contradictory. But it’s not.

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What it means is many past Liberal voters would vote Liberal again — without enthusiasm. It is a softening vote. And in 2018 the challenge for the new party leaders — the Conservatives’ Andrew Scheer and the NDP’s Jagmeet Singh — is to take those soft Liberal votes.

Trudeau left 2017 with no signature success, but did create two big targets to shoot at. One legacy is his deficits, which a recent Parliamentary Budget Office report says will continue for decades. The other is broken promises — on electoral reform, infrastructure, First Nations education and many other issues. Scheer will likely focus on the first target. Singh’s NDP will take on the second.