Satisfaction with P.E.I. government takes another drop in Narrative Research poll
The latest quarterly poll from Narrative Research contains some good and bad news for the Progressive Conservative government on Prince Edward Island.
Results of the poll, for which researchers reached 300 Islanders by phone from Feb. 8-13, were released Wednesday morning.
They were polled the week after the Green Party's Matt MacFarlane took a seat from the governing PCs in a byelection on Feb. 7.
The number of people polled who reported being completely or mostly satisfied with the provincial government fell 10 percentage points from the November level, which itself followed an eight percentage point drop from August.
In 2021, the government was hitting satisfaction levels in the 80s.
Premier Dennis King's personal numbers also took a hit in the latest survey. The number of people polled who named King as their preferred provincial leader dropped 11 points to 38 per cent. Since August of 2021, King has for the most part been the pick of about half of respondents to Narrative Research polls.
22% have no preferred leader
On the good news for the government front, while Islanders may not be as happy with the provincial government as they used to be, there is no sign yet that they have turned their favour to someone else.
Both the Liberal and Green parties currently have interim leaders. While both saw an increase in their preference numbers, neither is yet making a serious challenge. The Greens' Karla Bernard was the pick of 17 per cent of those polled, and the Liberals' Hal Perry was at 12 per cent.
The biggest gain was among those not selecting anyone as a preferred leader, up seven points to 22 per cent.
Voting preferences also held good news for the PCs. More than half of those expressing a preference in the poll said they would vote for the governing Tories if an election were held today. At 51 per cent, that share was down from 56 per cent in November.
While Green support jumped 10 points to 28 per cent, that followed unusually poor numbers in November. The party's 28 per cent in the latest poll was in line with where the party had polled in the previous year.
Liberal support fell to 12 per cent, the lowest it has been since at least August 2021.
The results of the satisfaction and leader preference polls are considered accurate within 5.6 percentage points 19 times out of 20. The voter preference poll, in which 187 of those asked picked a party, is considered accurate within 7.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
