As the provincial election campaign gets underway, a new poll suggests the New Democrats have a 17-point lead on the governing BC Liberals.

The Angus Reid poll doesn't offer much good news for the Liberals. Some 61 per cent of respondents agreed with the statement: "It is time for a change in government in British Columbia -- a different provincial party should be elected into power."

Only 22 per cent agreed with the statement: "It is not time for a change in government in British Columbia -– the BC Liberals should be re-elected." A further 17 per cent were unsure.

Of those respondents who said they voted for the Liberals in 2009, only 46 per cent said the government should be re-elected.

Among decided and leaning voters, the NDP leads with 45 per cent support, with the Liberals at 28 per cent, the Green party at 13, the B.C. Conservatives at 12 and others, including independents, at three per cent.

The Liberals did their best with voters over 55, although they still trailed the NDP by 12 points in this demographic –- 33 per cent to the NDP's 45 per cent. The one demographic where the Liberals did well was in households with an annual income of more than $100,000. The governing party led there with 43 per cent support to the NDP's 34 per cent.

NDP leader Adrian Dix's approval ratings fell in this poll, but are still well ahead of Premier Christy Clark's.

The Liberals may take some comfort from the following statement from pollster Mario Canseco:

"While the level of undecided voters in this survey is 13 per cent, more than two-in-five respondents cannot pick a 'best premier' for the province just four weeks before the new Legislative Assembly is elected. This finding suggests that the current numbers may go through fluctuations, depending on factors such as identification with candidates in specific ridings and, unquestionably, the televised debate scheduled for April 29."

The Reid poll was taken Friday, April 12 and Saturday, April 13 among 804 members of an online panel. Reid quotes a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 per cent, 19 times out of 20 (see note below).

Polling for B.C. election 2013 as of April 16, 2013

Company	Date	Lib	NDP	Cons	Green	Other	Method	Sample	+/-
Angus Reid	17-18 Jan	31	46	10	10	3	Online	802	3.5
Mustel	11-21 Jan	33	43	11	11	2	Phone	509	4.3
Justason	25 Jan - 1 Feb	26	48	12	11	3	Phone-online	600	4
Ekos	1-10 Feb	27.4	39	14.6	13.5	5.5	IVR*	687	3.7
Angus Reid	22-21 Feb	31	47	9	10	3	Online	803	3.5
Ipsos	8-12 Mar	32	51	9	7	1	Online	1,000	3.1
Angus Reid	18-19 Mar	28	48	11	11	2	Online	809	3.5
Insights West	26-31 Mar	28	45	10	15	2	Online	855	3.4
Ekos	3-10 Apr	27.3	39.3	13.4	16.2	3.8	IVR*	793	3.5
Angus Reid	12-13 Apr	28	45	12	13	3	Online	804	3.5

*Interactive Voice Response.

Note: The sampling error margins given here are those provided by the pollster. While online polls have been very successful at predicting recent elections, there is a methodological controversy surrounding the citing of margins of error for online polls. Some experts hold that it is inappropriate to quote a margin of error for an online poll because participants in such polls are drawn from volunteer panels, rather than chosen at random from the general population. For more on this issue, see this story.

Find Tyee election reporting team member and contributing editor Tom Barrett’s previous Tyee articles here. Find him on Twitter or email him here.