King government retains pre-COVID support in new poll
'Decided voter support for the PCs has returned to pre-pandemic levels, now at 48 per cent'
The latest quarterly poll from Narrative Research shows Prince Edward Islanders are slightly less satisfied with the performance of Premier Dennis King's government, but the support is "still very strong," according to the polling firm.
In Narrative's May report, 92 per cent of Islanders expressed satisfaction with the King government. That number had slipped to 85 per cent by the time 301 adult Prince Edward Islanders were polled by phone from August 4-19. The results are considered accurate to within ±5.7 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
King's Progressive Conservative government has 48 per cent of decided voter support according to the latest polling numbers, compared to 54 per cent in May and 45 per cent in February.
The Opposition Greens are at 25 per cent compared to 22 per cent in May, and the Liberals are a hair up from May's 22 per cent backing at 23 per cent of decided voter support. Support for the NDP went from 1 to 4 per cent. The results for the election intentions portion of the poll are considered accurate to within ±6.7 percentage points based on a sample size of 216 decided voters.
Twenty-eight per cent of those polled either don't plan to vote, refused to state or were undecided.
The party leadership preference question gave King 45 per cent support, down from 53 per cent at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in May. Preference for the Green Party's Peter Bevan-Baker was measured at 26 per cent, up from 21 per cent; interim Liberal Leader Sonny Gallant had 9 per cent (unchanged since May); and 4 per cent preferred NDP Leader Joe Byrne (compared with 3 per cent in May).
Of those polled, 14 per cent did not have a leadership preference and 2 per cent said they had a preference for none of the main party leaders.