Approximately two-thirds of Albertans believe the governing New Democrats will not survive another election, according to a survey by Insights West.
The group conducted an online survey of 602 Albertans – with a margin of error of +/- four per cent.
Of those who responded, 67 per cent felt a party other than the NDP would form government in the next provincial election. That includes the 54 per cent of respondents who voted for the NDP last May. It also includes 83 per cent of Progressive Conservative voters and 92 per cent Wildrose Party voters.
“It wasn’t actually a poll about what people, how they were going to vote,” Premier Rachel Notley said Friday. “It was a poll about how they thought their neighbours would vote.
“I suspect if you had done that poll 14 days before the last election, you would have gotten a similar result.”
She described the poll as “an interesting thing to write about” but not something she’s dwelling on.
“I’m focused on the poll which is of course the one that you will see sometime in the spring of 2019,” Notley said. “In the meantime I’m focused on delivering the best government to Albertans that I can.”
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The survey found Albertans were divided about how the other parties should act.
A majority (53 per cent) supported keeping the PC and Wildrose parties separate, as they are now. However, 36 per cent felt a new party – under a different name – should be create to unite them.
“The exercise to unite-the-right at the federal level, which was ultimately successful, is definitely on the minds of Albertans,” Mario Canseco, vice president of public affairs at Insights West, said.
“At this point, a majority of Wildrose voters are open to the idea of a full merger, as well as almost half of Progressive Conservatives.”
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People who voted for the Wildrose last election were more supportive of a “unite-the-right” idea (57 per cent) than keeping the two parties separate (53 per cent). Those who voted for the PCs last election feel almost the same way about the parties staying separate (48 per cent) or uniting them (46 per cent).
About 30 per cent of the respondents would be “satisfied” if the PCs were invited to join the Wildrose and just 26 per cent would be OK with the Wildrose members joining the PCs.
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On May 5, 2015, Rachel Notley’s NDP won a majority government in Alberta, ending the 44-year reign of the Progressive Conservatives.
Insights West’s survey found one in five Albertans consider themselves as far-left, left or centre-left on the political spectrum, while three in 10 describe themselves as far-right, right or centre-right. About one in four say they are at the centre, including 27 per cent of PC voters and 26 per cent of NDP voters in 2015.
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