Incompetence or no, I would argue the perception of their competence has changed not because of CPC attacks but because of larger economic changes, the larger of which are outlined below...
No, but those with houses were happy to count their imaginary money as values grew and rates stayed low. With increased rates, not only the folks priced out were upset, but now those inside the club were also ****** as many faced massive mortgage payment spikes. Add our over-leveraged average Canadian suddenly paying way higher rates on their HELOC and disposable income, real or imagined, suddenly disappeared.
On top of that, poorly managed immigration policies have meant that not only is there an ongoing unaddressed trades labour shortage limiting the rate at which supply can be added, we've also dumped hundreds of thousands of international 'students' onto communities totally unprepared for their housing demand. This means not only is housing unaffordable to purchase, it's also unaffordable to rent. And this has impacted places that haven't had to deal with inflated purchase pricing. I was speaking to a friend in Cape Breton, and they have a crisis of housing due to the volume of students. PEI has the same, only higher profile. This has the double-whammy effect of also impacting students and young people, and both they and the Atlantic provinces were big drivers of most Trudeau election wins.
The intensely negative reaction to both of these issues have anything to do with Poilievre. Neither did the food cost crisis, and the perceived lack of action from the Liberals in addressing greedflation for basic life requirements, or not hitting companies like Loblaws with windfall taxes as has been done elsewhere. Add the fact that the NDP are perceived to be in lockstep with the Liberals, or at least not holding them accountable on big issues in return for action on pet projects, and people have almost exclusively moved blue when they may have moved orange in the past. I expect a bump for the greens in the upcoming election as people on the left refuse to vote either red or orange, though I suspect it'll also mostly just nibble away at Liberal and NDP vote counts rather than result in more seats (similar to the PPC effect on the Conservatives in the last election).
Nope, but it's been a second or third tier issue that has always been usurped by other issues on the list of voting priorities. When people are already ****** off, then it just becomes another thing to be ****** about.
Poilievre may be getting more action and campaigning, but a lot more people are a LOT more ****** off this time around, rather than nervous like they were in 2021. And it won't make much difference anyway, as I expect a Liberal decimation not dissimilar to the Progressive Conservatives in '93, complete with a likely handoff from Trudeau to Freeland to match the Mulroney to Campbell sacrifice. The only thing that will save the Liberals from losing official party status is that there isn't a viable centrist alternative similar to the Reform Party of the time. While I admired the goals, calling a party the Centre Ice Party was such a staggering miscalculation that it called into question their common sense...