Premier Gordon Campbell’s approval rating has hit single digits, with just nine per cent of British Columbians giving him a thumbs-up, according to a new poll.
The Angus Reid poll results, released Friday, shocked even jaded pundits.
“This is absolutely astounding,” veteran political observer Norman Ruff said Saturday.
“I have never seen such a low number,” added Ruff, a political science professor emiritus at the University of Victoria. “One has to wonder how low can it go?
“I think it is a question of when will the premier step down?”
The online poll of 804 adults was conducted Oct. 13 and 14. It is considered accurate to a margin of plus or minus 3.5 percent 19 times out of 20.
The poll also found the New Democratic Party had the support of 49 per cent of respondents, up one percentage point since the previous Angus Reid poll in September.
The latest poll had the B.C. Liberals sitting at 24 per cent – down one percentage point since September – while the Green Party stood at 13 per cent and the still-leaderless B.C. Conservatives at eight per cent.
The Liberals have encountered huge opposition to the harmonized sales tax, and Ruff said many people feel the Campbell government lied to them during the last election campaign about bringing in the new tax.
“There is mistrust, and once you have lost that trust, it is extremely hard to gain it back,” said Ruff.
In September, Campbell’s approval rating hit 12 per cent, with many saying it could not get any lower.
Angus Reid vice-president Mario Canseco said the company’s pollsters were amazed at the level of public resentment toward Campbell.
“It was shocking to us when we saw these results,” said Canseco.
“We have never seen anything like this. Nobody has ever been this low.”
He said Campbell has clearly become “the lightning rod” for a taxpayer backlash over the HST.
The new poll also indicated that seven in 10 respondents planned to vote to abolish the HST in the provincewide referendum set for September 2011.
Meanwhile, the approval rating for NDP Leader Carole James remains at a modest 27 per sent.
“The NDP is doing well but there is not a lot of connection with Carole James,” said Canseco.
Former Social Credit premier and anti-HST campaigner Bill Vander Zalm said he has never heard of such a low number for a politician anywhere in North America.
“Single digits – it certainly is indicative of the unpopularity of the HST,” Vander Zalm said.
NDP House Leader Mike Farnworth said the poll shows that Campbell “is the most unpopular premier in the history of this province.”
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