PC lead jumps while Liberals hold steady, NDP slide in latest MQO poll

Support for the Progressive Conservatives has jumped ahead of the governing Liberals in Newfoundland and Labrador, suggests a new poll.

MQO Research's quarterly Atlantic Matters poll, released Thursday, suggests the Liberals' support is steady — among decided and leaning voters — at 35 per cent, the same as in the last poll in May.

But the PCs jumped from 39 per cent in May to 48 per cent in the new poll. The PCs' gain was the NDP's loss, as the New Democrats fell from 23 per cent last time to 16 per cent this quarter.

But one in three people polled, 33 per cent, say they're undecided or don't know who they support.

If the election were held today, 28 per cent would vote PC, 20 per cent Liberal, nine per cent NDP, and nine per cent wouldn't vote, or refused to answer.

Premier Dwight Ball's rating among the public remains low, with a mean rating of four on a scale of one to 10.

The poll also suggests Newfoundlanders and Labradorians are pessimistic about the provincial economy, with 56 per cent saying the general outlook is getting worse, and just eight per cent who think it's getting better.

MQO polled 600 randomly selected eligible voters across the province by telephone from July 4 to July 19. The margin of error among decided voters is 5.2 percentage points 19 times out of 20.