CRA poll: Liberals retain solid lead, Tories up slightly

An opinion poll released Wednesday shows Newfoundland and Labrador's Liberals still hold a comfortable lead among decided voters, although the gap has narrowed over the past three months.

It also gave Liberal Leader Dwight Ball another strong endorsement.

The Corporate Research Associates quarterly poll puts the Opposition Liberals well out front with the support of 56 per cent of decided voters in a poll carried out between Feb. 9 and March 2.

That's down from 60 per cent in December.

The governing Progressive Conservatives experienced a small bump in support to 31 per cent, an increase of two percentage points.

Meanwhile, support for the New Democratic Party climbed to 13 per cent, up from 10 per cent in December.

It's the highest approval rating for the Tories since a year ago, when the party received the endorsement of 33 per cent of voters.

The Liberals have hovered between 50 and 60 per cent support during the same time.

The poll is based on a telephone survey of 801 residents of the province. The margin area for that sample size is 3.5 per cent, 95 times out of 100.

The CRA findings come a day after an Abacus Data poll suggested there's a slim chance for the Tories in the next provincial election.

Government satisfaction rate up

However, the CRA poll revealed that a growing number of voters — 56 per cent — are either mostly or completely satisfied with the overall performance of the provincial government.

That's up from 50 per cent in December.

As for the popularity of party leaders, Ball leads the way with 47 per cent, while Premier Paul Davis trails with 29 per cent.

NDP Leader Lorraine Michael remains unchanged at nine per cent.