Voter satisfaction high in P.E.I.

Islanders are going into the holiday season mostly satisfied with the performance of the minority government of Progressive Conservative Premier Dennis King.

In a new poll of 600 Islanders conducted by Narrative Research, 77 per cent said they were either completely or mostly satisfied with the overall performance of the provincial government. This puts voter satisfaction for the King-led government far ahead of its counterparts in Atlantic Canada.

Narrative Research CEO Margaret Brigley said the high level of satisfaction for King’s PC government was uncommon, even for a new government.

"That's very high," Brigley said. "They're still clearly enjoying a honeymoon."

Currently, 53 per cent of New Brunswick voters are satisfied with the government of Progressive Conservative Premier Blaine Higgs, while 52 per cent of Newfoundland and Labrador voters are satisfied with the government of Liberal Premier Dwight Ball. Satisfaction with the Liberal government of Stephen MacNeil stands at 45 per cent.

The last P.E.I. government to hold a 77 per cent satisfaction rating was the Robert Ghiz Liberal government in 2008, Brigley said.

At that time, the Opposition Progressive Conservatives were in a weakened state, having seen their popularity plummet under then-interim leader Olive Crane.

In P.E.I., the Third Party Liberals are seeing a resurgence. Support for the Liberals jumped 10 percentage points since August, from 16 per cent to 26 per cent.

“It perhaps could be some reflection from the federal election,” Brigley said of the Liberal gains.

The NDP, which was shut out from winning seats in the last provincial election, also saw its support rise by five points, from one per cent in August to six per cent.

The Liberal gains appear to have come at the expense of both the governing PCs and the Opposition Greens. The PC party was down seven percentage points since the summer (currently at 38 per cent, down from 45 per cent) while the Greens were down eight per cent (currently at 29 per cent, down from 37 per cent.)

Twenty-seven per cent of P.E.I. voters were either undecided or refused to state their preference. Three per cent did not support any leader or do not plan to vote in the next election.

PC Premier Dennis King remained the preferred premier of 36 per cent of Islanders, the same level as August. Peter BevanBaker was the preferred choice for premier of 30 per cent of Islanders, down slightly from 33 per cent in August. Interim Liberal leader Sonny Gallant, who has been in the post only a few months, was the preferred choice of 11 per cent, while NDP leader Joe Byrne was the preferred choice of 4 per cent.

The poll was conducted by telephone with 600 P.E.I. residents between Nov.r 1 and 28, 2019. The margin of error overall was +/- 4 percentage points, 95 times out of 100. The questions about party preference were asked of 423 decided voters and have a margin of error of +/- 4.8 percentage points, 95 times out of 100.