Exploring How Canadian Voters Evaluate Leader Character in Three Cases: Justin Trudeau, Hillary Clinton, and Donald Trump

Abstract

In exploratory research, we investigate whether a recently developed framework of leader character, grounded in the business administration literature, has any utility for understanding how citizens value the character of modern political leaders. We are interested in whether the entire leader character framework, or only a subset of its dimensions, are valued by Canadians in political leaders. An opinion poll of 506 Canadians in the fall of 2016 examines how they responded to the framework, which dimensions of leader character they value highly, and how they employed it to evaluate three well-known politicians who were then in the media spotlight: Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau; and American presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. The results suggest Canadians possess a clear, distinct set of preferences with respect to the ideal shape of leader character. This finding is salient toward understanding the modern political culture of Canada, as well as addressing speculation that the rise of populism in many countries suggests voters might embrace a leader in the mould of American president Donald Trump.