Support for Liberal Party slipping, according to survey

Support for the Nova Scotia Liberal Party is stable, but remains at its lowest level since the October 2013 election, according to the most recent survey conducted by Corporate Research Associates Inc.

The survey shows that 37 per cent of decided voters support the governing Liberal party — down from 38 per cent in November 2017.

Preference for the Progressive Conservative Party is up to 34 per cent in the same survey, compared with 29 per cent, while support for the New Democratic Party is down from 27 per cent to 25 per cent.

Support for the Green Party is also down one percentage point to four per cent.

The number of Nova Scotians who are undecided is stable and rests at 26 per cent, according to the survey, compared with 28 per cent last year.

Four per cent refuse to state a preference (compared with six per cent), and another four per cent either support none of these parties or do not plan to vote (compared with six per cent).

The survey also revealed that government satisfaction has declined to its lowest level under the current Liberal leadership to 38 per cent — down from 46 per cent in November 2017.

In terms of leader preference, 27 per cent of Nova Scotians support Premier Stephen McNeil, compared with 28 per cent in November 2017. That’s his lowest level of support since the October 2013 election.

Karla MacFarlane, the interim leader of the PC Party notched 25 per cent in the preference portion of the poll, compared with 21 per cent for former leader Jamie Baillie just three months ago.

Support for Gary Burrill of the NDP came in at 21 per cent — up from 18 per cent last survey period.

Poll results are part of the CRA Atlantic Quarterly, an independent, telephone survey of Atlantic Canadians, and are based on a sample of 800 adult Nova Scotians, conducted from Feb. 1 to March 4, 2018.

Overall results are said to be accurate to within plus or minus 3.5 percentage points, 95 times out of 100.

Visit https://cra.ca/newsroom/ to view full release, graphs, and data tables.