Brian Gallant's Liberals see support surge in new CRA poll

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal wave in the October federal election has managed to lift the popular support of Premier Brian Gallant's provincial Liberals, according to the latest Corporate Research Associates.

Gallant's Liberals saw the percentage of people picking them as their preferred party jump to 55 per cent in November, up from 36 per cent in August. The last time the Liberals were this popular in a CRA poll was in February.

Support for the Progressive Conservatives fell to 25 per cent from 28 per cent, and the Green Party's support dropped to seven per cent from 10 per cent in the same time period.

The NDP was hit the hardest in the latest New Brunswick poll. The party's support fell to 12 per cent from 25 per cent.

The undecided number shrunk to 25 per cent from 33 per cent, according to CRA's latest quarterly political poll.

The Liberal government's rising popularity comes as Victor Boudreau, the minister for the strategic program review, has recently released a report that is calling for $600 million in cuts or ways to boost revenue.

The final decisions out of the strategic program review will be announced in the upcoming provincial budget.

Corporate Research Associates surveyed 803 New Brunswickers from Nov. 5 to 30. The overall results have a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. The margin of error on the party support numbers is 4.4 percentage points, because undecided voters are excluded from that sample.

The polling firm was in the field roughly two weeks after federal Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau won the Oct. 19 federal election. The Liberals won all 32 seats in Atlantic Canada, including all 10 ridings in New Brunswick.

Gallant government climbs in popularity

The Gallant government also witnessed a bump up in popularity in the poll, which was released on Tuesday.

The number of people who were completely or mostly satisfied with the government's performance rate hit 53 per cent, up from 38 per cent in November.

By comparison, the percentage of people saying they were completely or mostly dissatisfied with the Gallant government was reduced to 36 per cent from 50 per cent.

The poll also delivered good news for Gallant's personal approval ratings.

The Liberal leader was picked by 39 per cent of respondents as the person they most want to be premier.

Gallant's personal popularity compares to 13 per cent who opted for interim Tory Leader Bruce Fitch, nine per cent for Green Party Leader David Coon and eight per cent for NDP Leader Dominic Cardy.