NDP support buoyed by shipbuilding contract: poll
Posted Dec 7, 2011 05:19:00 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Support is increasing for the provincial NDP party, according to the latest quarterly poll from Corporate Research Associates.
Forty-five per cent of decided voters say they would support the NDP if an election were called, up from 41 per cent in August.
The gains cut into Liberal and Conservative party support, which fell by four per cent and one per cent respectively.
CRA President Don Mills says the shipbuilding announcement helped foster support for the Dexter government.
“I think it has lifted peoples’ spirits,” he says. “And when people are feeling better, when their confidence is increasing, they tend to feel better towards their government.”
Party leader preference reflected similar trends, with NDP leader Darrell Dexter’s personal popularity up to 36 per cent from 31 per cent. Liberal leader Stephen McNeil garnered 22 per cent of provincial support, relatively unchanged from the last survey. PC Party leader Jaimie Baillie’s support was also fairly steady at 18 per cent.
Mills tells News 95.7 that federal party actions have affected provincial views.
“Provincial [Liberal] parties have really suffered from the national Liberal Party and the major downdraft that they had in the national election,” he said.
The results are based on a survey of 802 adult Nova Scotians, conducted from November 9 to November 29, with overall results accurate to within 3.5 percentage points.
