Polls show disconnect between NDP, Nova Scotians
Posted Sep 5, 2013 06:40:21 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
HALIFAX – A political scientist says there is a disconnect between the NDP government and Nova Scotians as talk of a provincial election ramps up.
Jeff MacLeod, a professor at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, says he believes the party has lost touch with its base.
Two government polls conducted this year asked Nova Scotians how familiar they were with the N-D-P’s efforts to balance the budget and other key policies.
The polls were obtained by The Canadian Press through access to information laws.
In both polls, less than half of the respondents were aware of the government’s policies on health care and job creation without first being told the names of the programs.
Less than half of respondents in the second poll knew the government had tabled a balanced budget in April.
MacLeod says the results speak to the N-D-P’s branding woes and, on a deeper level, the trouble it’s having resonating with Nova Scotians.
Premier Darrell Dexter says the lack of public knowledge around the budget is worrisome.
He says the government communicates to Nova Scotians through advertising and the media, and he can’t explain why its message doesn’t always reach the intended audience.
