Just 1 In 4 B.C. Adults Trusts BC Liberals’ Budget: Poll
VANCOUVER – BC Liberal leader Christy Clark and her party are so unpopular that they are staring at disaster on May 14 unless things change quickly or a miracle happens, which doesn’t look like to be the case after so many miscues by her and her advisors.
A poll out this week also found that only 24 per cent of British Columbians believe the budget surplus forecast by the Liberal government is credible. The new poll was conducted just weeks before the provincial election.
The budget presented in February claimed natural gas royalties and asset sales would provide for a $197 million surplus this fiscal year and another $211 million surplus the next.
But an Angus Reid Public Opinion survey released Thursday found the public much more likely to trust the opposition B.C. NDP, which disputed the good news figures and estimated B.C. actually faces a deficit of $790 million this year and $847 million next.
A full 50 per cent of respondents said they trust the NDP’s position, while the remaining 26 per cent said they’re not sure who to believe.
The poll also suggests British Columbians are split down the middle about whether the province’s economy is in good or bad shape. But the majority, 44 per cent, believe B.C. is doing “about the same” as other provinces either way.
Asked how the province should deal with a budget deficit, 35 per cent said the solution should be to raise taxes, while 45 per cent would want to cut programs.
Thirty-seven per cent said they could stomach the next government running a deficit for a year or two, while 31 per cent said the province shouldn’t run a deficit under any circumstances.
The popularity problem continues with Clark and her party quickly losing ground with voters with just days to go before the writ is dropped.
Clark announced Monday she’s booked a half-hour prime time television slot next weekend to take her message directly to voters but she is tied with Newfoundland Premier Kathy Dunderdale as the least popular provincial leader in the country according to an Angus Reid poll, which suggested she will lay out her platform in the TV address next Sunday, telling voters what direction lies ahead with a Liberal government.
The recent Angus Reid poll found she and her governing Liberals had an approval rating of 25 per cent in the online survey of almost 7,100 adults, down from 31 per cent just three months prior. Eight per cent of those surveyed from March 11 to March 23 were undecided on Clark and 67 per cent disapproved of her performance as premier.
The poll was conducted shortly after Clark was forced to apologize for a leaked strategy aimed at wooing ethnic voters.
New Democrat Leader Adrian Dix had an approval rating of 49 per cent, while BC Conservative Leader John Cummins got the nod from 20 per cent and Green Party Leader Jane Sterk, 32 per cent. The margin of error is plus or minus 1.2 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
BC Voters go to the polls May 14.
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