New poll suggests that Justin Trudeau’s Ukraine joke didn’t seem to hurt his popularity

Is Justin Trudeau Canada's new teflon man?

It appears that the Liberal leader's untimely joke about Ukraine doesn't seem to be affecting his popularity.

Late last month, in an interview with Radio Canada —after violent clashes that killed dozens in Ukraine — Trudeau said this: "It is very worrisome, particularly since Russia lost in [Olympic] hockey, they will be in a bad mood and we fear Russian involvement in the Ukraine."

It was a dumb comment -- Trudeau appropriately apologized.

Both the Tories and the New Democrats were quick to promote the story; the Conservatives even posted a video of the interview on their website.

[ Related: Justin Trudeau apologizes for his quip about Ukraine ]

But new Nanos Research tracking numbers indicate that the incident didn't really hurt him.

"In the Nanos weekly Party Power Index, the Federal Liberals registered a score of 58 points out of 100, followed by the Conservatives at 51 points, the NDP at 49 points, the Green Party at 32 points, and the BQ at 28 points in Quebec," Nik Nanos notes on his website.

"The Index was relatively stable week over week on many of the key measures."

Nanos develops its brand rankings based on four different questions about the federal parties and their leadership.

When asked to rank their preferences for Prime Minister, the four week rolling average had Trudeau at 31 percent,down one point from last week but up two points from two weeks ago before the Ukraine comment became public. Incidentally, Stephen Harper was at 26 per cent while NDP leader Thomas Mulcair followed at 18 per cent.

[ Related: What is the appeal of Justin Trudeau? ]

Despite this comment and other comments, Trudeau continues to stay atop of the opinion polls.

There have certainly been other gaffes.

There was the video of a younger Trudeau saying that Canada isn't doing well right now because Albertans are in power; there's the whole incident of him earning speaking fees while being a member of Parliament; and then there was his joke about admiring China because "their basic dictatorship is allowing them to actually turn their economy around on a dime."

He's also had some other foot-in-the-mouth incidents as succinctly highlighted in a November 13th Sun News' article titled: "Top ten dumb Justin Trudeau statements."

But, for now, nothing seems to be sticking.

(Photo courtesy of the Canadian Press)

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