An Angus Reid poll released yesterday shows the B.C. NDP well ahead of the provincial Liberals, while other polls indicate the federal party is leading in the Maritimes, Quebec, and B.C. and close behind the Conservatives in Ontario.
Conducted from May 21-28, the poll surveyed 6,599 adult Canadians on their opinions of the provincial premiers and opposition leaders. It found Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall the most popular premier with a 67 percent approval rating. Nova Scotia's Darrell Dexter, a New Democrat, was least popular, with 27 percent.
In B.C., Christy Clark was just ahead of Dexter with 30 percent. Of those polled, 63 percent disapproved of her performance and 7 percent weren't sure.
Among opposition leaders, B.C.'s Adrian Dix had 53 percent approval and 33 percent disapproval, with 14 percent not sure. He was ahead of all opposition leaders except for NDP leader Lorraine Michael in Newfoundland and Labrador, whose approval was 57 percent, with disapproval at 30 percent and 13 percent not sure.
Meanwhile, Eric Grenier's ThreeHundredEight blog posted an analysis today of several national polls conducted in May. He found the Liberals continuing to fall to an average of 19.1 percent, "their lowest score since the May 2011 election." By contrast, the Conservatives were up 0.6 point to 33.8 percent, and the NDP rose 1.6 points. That put them at 34.9 percent nationally, with the Conservatives behind at 33.8 -- the first time since June 2009, Grenier said, when they had lost the lead.
Grenier found federal New Democrats leading in B.C. "for the third consecutive month" with 38.7 percent, while the Conservatives rose 3.2 percent to 37.4 percent. The Liberals continued to lose ground, falling 1.6 points to 14.7 percent.
If an election had been held in May 2012, Grenier said, the Conservatives would have taken 140 seats. The NDP with 118 could have gained a minority government supported by 44 Liberals.
Crawford Kilian is a contributing editor of The Tyee.
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