HALIFAX –Premier Brian Gallant’s newly elected Liberal Party has the support of about half of New Brunswick’s voting population, according to a poll released Monday.
The latest figures released by Corporate Research Associates (CRA) indicate that 47 per cent of residents in the province are satisfied with Gallant’s government, which is up from the 35 per cent who supported the governing Progressive Conservatives during the last round of polling in August 2014.
There was also a large reduction in the number of people who aren’t happy with the government — only 19 per cent said they were dissatisfied, down from 56 per cent in August. The remaining 34 per cent said it was too early to tell or offered no opinion.
In terms of party support, the Liberals finished first with 52 per cent (up from 48 per cent) while the Conservatives had less than half as much at 23 per cent (down from 29 per cent). The NDP had 14 per cent support while the Green Party had nine per cent and the People’s Alliance had two per cent.
Gallant’s personal popularity ranked first at 39 per cent, followed by interim Conservative Leader Bruce Fitch at 14 per cent, which was down from the 22 per cent rating of his predecessor David Alward. NDP Leader Dominic Cardy and Green Party Leader David Coon each had 10 per cent support, and People’s Alliance Leader Kris Austin came in at two per cent.
Five per cent said they preferred none of the leaders and 20 per cent did not offer a firm choice.
The Liberals won 27 of the 49 seats in the September provincial election, but slipped to 26 when Gary Keating resigned before taking office.
The poll was conducted with 800 adults in the province from Nov. 6-26 and the results are considered to be accurate within 3.5 percentage points, 95 times out of 100.
Comments