As the House of Commons approaches confidence votes on Mark Carney’s first budget, they know that to force an election would be to court the ire of the public. It may be true that Canadians never really want early elections but this would be pushing that theory too far, it seems to me.

A majority in our post budget poll (69%) say they want opposition parties to allow the budget to pass and the government to continue in the policy direction it has set. That leaves only 31% thinking it’s time to go back to the polls - 202 days after the last time we did that.

Among those on the left of the spectrum, 73% say let the budget pass. With a number like this, it’s hard to see how the NDP could catch a wave and recover the seats they just lost, let alone win more.

Among those on the right, 51% say they would rather see the budget pass than have an election. Doesn’t really look like a great opportunity for Pierre Poilievre to improve upon his results earlier this year. And if he didn’t, his political career would probably end only weeks from now.

Voters aren’t happy about everything. This isn’t only an indication of support for the budget, although a majority of people in our survey think it was the right budget for Canada at this moment in time.

My read is that these results also reflects a question of “towards what end?”. Carney is more respected and liked than Poilievre, and people think the biggest economic challenges Canada has have more to do with global trends and US pressures than government policies here at home. People hired him to do what he’s working on.

For the moment, anyway, would an election result in people blaming the PM for not doing more to satisfy demands from opposition parties?

It’s hard to imagine, given these numbers. More likely it would leave voters wondering what exactly got into the minds of opposition leaders to force an election so soon after voters had marked their ballots and accepted both the result and the direction that was being set for the country.