Nova Scotia Election: Liberals, PCs neck-and-neck in recent poll

With less than two weeks to go until Nova Scotia voters head to the polls in the province’s 40th election, a recent poll by Forum Research Inc. shows the Liberals and Progressive Conservatives are neck-and-neck among decided and leaning voters.

The Liberals remain in the lead with 37 per cent support, however they have dropped four points since a Forum poll at the beginning of the campaign.

READ MORE: Complete Nova Scotia election coverage

Meanwhile the Tories have narrowed the race, gaining five points to reach 35 per cent support. According to the poll, the two parties are “statistically tied.” The NDP’s support has remained unchanged at 25 per cent.

In terms of how many seats each party could gain, the poll shows Nova Scotia could be looking at the possibility of a minority Liberal government with 22 seats, 12 less than where they stood at dissolution — 26 are needed for a majority. The PCs would remain official opposition, adding seven seats to their party for a total of 17, while the NDP could gain seven seats as well, bringing them to 12 despite the retirements of MLA Marian Mancini and longtime MLA Sterling Belliveau.

It’s not the first time in recent years Nova Scotia would see a minority government, having had two terms of a minority PC government in 2003 and 2006 under John Hamm followed by Rodney MacDonald.

In terms of leadership approval, Premier Stephen McNeil has 28 per cent support, however, six in 10 respondents say they disapprove of his job as premier.

READ MORE: Nova Scotia Election: McNeil fends off attacks from PC, NDP leaders in debate

Forum Research president Lorne Bozinoff said in a news release the McNeil’s approval has had an effect.

“The premier is very unpopular right now, and that could be why we are seeing such a dip in the Liberal numbers, right now,” Bozinoff said.

The poll was conducted May 15-16 through an interactive voice response telephone survey of 1,057 randomly selected Nova Scotia voters. The poll did not report on undecided voters.

The results are considered accurate +/- three per cent, 19 times out of 20.