PROVINCIAL PC PARTY EARNS HIGH RATING IN POLL
Dennis King government gets high approval, but leadership rating tied with Peter Bevan-Baker
Months after P.E.I. voters put the Progressive Conservatives in office under Premier Dennis King, satisfaction with the performance of the provincial government has reached an 11-year high — the best rating for the provincial government since the Robert Ghiz Liberal government of 2008, according to the latest survey by Narrative Research.
Three quarters of Island voters (76 per cent) express satisfaction with the King government, a dramatic increase of 29 points over the 47 per cent rating recorded for the outgoing Liberal government in May, following the April 23 election.
The current satisfaction rating is the highest seen since February 2008, when Ghiz’s Liberal government enjoyed a rating of 77 per cent.
In terms of leadership preference, though, the PC and Green party leaders are in a statistical tie, with the PC’s King preferred as premier by 36 per cent of voters and Green Leader Peter Bevan-Baker currently preferred by 33 per cent.
Robert Mitchell, the interim Liberal leader – who since this survey was completed has said he would step down as interim leader – is the preferred choice of 12 per cent. NDP Leader Joe Byrne is the choice of two per cent.
Fourteen per cent of Islanders do not have a leadership preference, and two per cent say they prefer none of the main party leaders.
Decided voter support has remained generally consistent over the past three months.
The PCs are backed by 45 per cent of decided voters (compared with 43 per cent in May and 29 per cent in February, 2019). The Green party has the support of 37 per cent (compared with 36 per cent and 38 per cent), Liberal support stands at 16 per cent (compared with 17 per cent and 27 per cent), and the P.E.I. NDP has the backing of 1 per cent (compared with 3 per cent and 4 per cent).
Eighteen per cent of P.E.I. voters are undecided, three per cent refuse to state which party they support and three per cent do not plan to vote in the next provincial election.
These results are part of Narrative Research’s Atlantic Quarterly, an independent telephone survey of Atlantic Canadians, and are based on a sample of 300 adult Prince Edward Islanders, conducted from Aug. 1-22, 2019, with overall results accurate to within ± 5.7 percentage points, 95 out of 100 times. (The sample of 229 decided voters is accurate to within ± 6.9 percentage points, 95 times out of 100.)