Poll shows qualified support for UCP

New party needs ‘dose of humility’ while NDP seen as out of touch

CALGARY Albertans believe the NDP government is way off track and have good feelings about the United Conservative Party, although 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 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, said 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 Wednesday.

The UCP, formed through a referendum of PC and Wildrose members this past summer, will select its first leader Oct. 28 from among remaining candidates 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 was not included in the poll.

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

In worse news for the NDP, 70 per cent of poll respondents agreed 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.

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.