With less than three months to go before the next provincial election, the NDP is maintaining a double digit lead both provincially and in the north, according to a new public opinion poll
The opposition NDP are at 47 per cent province wide and 48 per cent in the north, according to results of an online survey conducted last week by Angus Reid and released on Monday. The governing Liberals, meanwhile, are at 31 per cent in the province and 33 per cent in the north.
The Greens hold down third spot in the province at 10 per cent, but only have the support of two per cent of voters in the north. The Conservatives are at nine per cent province wide and 11 per cent in the north.
The results of the poll are consistent with the last survey conducted by the polling company in January, which had the NDP ahead by 15 percentage points. The NDP has gained one percentage point in the past month, but that movement is well within the margin of error. The election is set for May 14.
The NDP lead in all regions of the province, with their largest edge coming on Vancouver Island and the tightest battle in metro Vancouver.
Despite the big lead, the poll did point to some troubling signs for the NDP. Leader Adrian Dix saw his disapproval rating jump from 34 per cent in January to 41 per cent this month. However he still has the best approval score among party leaders with 43 per cent of respondents approving of his job as opposition leader.
Only 31 per cent of those polled approve of the job Premier Christy Clark is doing, compared with 58 per cent saying they disapprove. Those figures are nearly identical to to the 31/56 split Clark received in the January poll.
Green Party leader Jane Sterk, with an approval rating of 24 per cent and a disapproval rating of 26 per cent and Conservative leader John Cummins with a 15/49 approval split also saw little change month over month.
Clark received the worst momentum score at minus-36 with 45 per cent of respondents saying their opinion of her worsened over the last three months against only nine per cent who said it improved. None of the leaders received positive scores, with Sterk getting the best result at minus-2. Dix was minus-7 and Cummins was minus-24.
The economy and health care remain the top two election issues according to the poll and Dix leads all leaders when respondents were asked who would best handle those two issues. In fact, Dix was deemed best to handle crime, education and federal/provincial relations as well. Sterk edged Dix on the leader best placed to handle the environment.
The poll was conducted Thursday and Friday and included 803 respondents across the province. The provincial figures are considered accurate to plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.
