Poll: Majority of Albertans think NDP out of touch

Albertans believe the NDP government is way off track and have good feelings about the United Conservative Party, though there are still some reservations about the new opposition party, according to an Angus Reid Institute poll.

The survey conducted Sept. 5 to 19 shows 63 per cent of respondents believe that the Progressive Conservatives and the Wildrose joining together to form the UCP is a good thing.

However, more than half of respondents — 57 per cent — agree that conservatives in Alberta feel entitled to govern.

The online poll also shows that 47 per cent of Albertans believe the UCP will be too right-wing and a centrist alternative is needed, with 53 per cent disagreeing.

Shachi Kurl, executive director of the Angus Reid Institute, says the poll is good news for the UCP but shows the party should avoid the potential pitfalls of being too arrogant or ideological.

“I think what this says is that a dose of humility is going to be important to success for the United Conservative Party,” Kurl said in an interview Wednesday.

The UCP, formed through a referendum of PC and Wildrose members this summer, will select its first leader on Oct. 28 from among Brian Jean, Jason Kenney and Doug Schweitzer.

The poll shows Jean, the Fort McMurray-Conklin MLA and former Wildrose leader, has an approval rating of 48 per cent, compared to 38 per cent for Kenney, the former PC leader and federal cabinet minister.

Schweitzer, a Calgary lawyer, was not included in the poll.

Jean and Kenney have a higher approval rating than Premier Rachel Notley, who chalks up a 29 per cent approval rating.

In even worse news for Notley’s NDP, 70 per cent of the poll respondents agree that the government is out of touch with what Albertans really want.

Kurl said the NDP should be particularly concerned that four in 10 Albertans who voted for the party in the 2015 election believe the government is out of touch.

“Politicians have come back from numbers like this. It’s not beyond the realm of possibility. But with a reinvigorated and reunited rightof-centre movement in Alberta, it doesn’t seem very likely today.”

Notley’s office did not respond to a request for comment but the poll was received positively by the contenders vying to lead the UCP.

In a news release, Jean’s campaign cited the Angus Reid poll as only the latest to show him as more popular than Kenney.

“Brian Jean is the most popular politician in Alberta and the only leadership candidate capable of generating the support needed across the province to virtually ensure a United Conservative Party victory in the next election,” said the campaign.

But Kenney spokesman Blaise Boehmer noted that the polling firm itself acknowledged that the findings do not necessarily represent the sentiments of the UCP members who will actually vote later this month.

“Their horse race question can be easily ignored,” he said in an email. “The question facing UCP members is pretty simple: Who has been the consistent, principled conservative voice for nearly three decades? ... The answer is Jason Kenney.”

The poll was conducted among a randomized representative sample of 606 Albertans who are members of the Angus Reid Forum. Online polls do not have a margin of error because the sample is not random, but a probability sample of this size would have a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points, 19 times out of 20.