THE governing British Columbia NDP have extended their lead over the BC Liberals and would be close to winning a majority if an election were held today.
Those are the findings from Mainstreet Research’s latest UltraPoll, a conglomeration of 10 provincial polls. The poll surveyed 923 British Columbians between March 20 and 21. The poll has a margin of error of +/- 3.23% and is accurate 19 times out of 20.
“This is the first time that we have seen some distance between the NDP and the BC Liberals beyond the margin of error in some time,” said Quito Maggi, President and CEO of Mainstreet Research.
“The good news continues for John Horgan after the NDP win in the Nanaimo by-election as both his favourability numbers and his party numbers are up since the beginning of the year.”
Among decided and leaning voters, the governing NDP led by Horgan lead with 39% support (+2% from Mainstreet’s January poll), while the opposition Liberals with Andrew Wilkinson at the helm have 32.4% (-2.5%).
“Usually when a government is being propped up by a third party in a minority situation, they siphon off support from that third party,” added Maggi.
“It happened when the Ontario NDP after they propped up the Liberals in 1985. It happened when Nick Clegg and Liberal Democrats went from coalition partner to being decimated in the 2015 UK general election, and it’s now happening to Andrew Weaver.”
The poll also found that Horgan remains the only leader that has a positive favourability rating among all the party leaders, in line with Mainstreet’s January poll. However, his net rating has improved while the favourability ratings of Weaver and Wilkinson have dropped.
Horgan has a +6.3% favourability rating, while Wilkinson has a -10.1% rating. Weaver has a rating of -5.9%, while Anderson has a rating of -2.6%.
