Prairies unhappy with premiers

A new poll suggests the premiers of Canada’s three Prairie provinces are lagging counterparts from the rest of the country when it comes to how local residents feel they are managing the COVID-19 pandemic.

The poll from Leger and the Association for Canadian Studies found 30 per cent of respondents in Alberta were satisfied with the job Premier Jason Kenney was doing when it comes to COVID-19 -- the lowest level of satisfaction for Canada’s 10 provincial leaders.

Kenney has faced criticism in recent weeks for resisting calls to impose lockdowns even as Alberta contended with a surge of new infections, which at one point saw it have more active cases than Ontario.

Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister, whose province has also been battered by new infections during the second wave of COVID19, fared slightly better than Kenney with 31 per cent of provincial respondents approving of his management of the pandemic. For much of the fall, Manitoba led all other provinces in new infections per capita.

The only other premier with less than 50 per cent satisfaction was Saskatchewan’s Scott Moe at 39 per cent. Moe’s government has also been criticized for not responding sooner to a steady increase in infections in the province.

In. British Columbia, Premier John Horgan’s handling of the pandemic garnered a thumbs-up from 59 per cent of respondents.

The online poll of 3,801 Canadians was conducted Dec. 4 to Dec. 20.