P.E.I. Liberal support down, but still favoured party in CRA poll

Support for the governing Liberals on P.E.I. took a serious hit in the latest poll by Corporate Research Associates.

The poll, which reached 300 Islanders from Nov. 7-29, found Liberal support, which had been running around 60 per cent for a year, dropped below 50 per cent among decided voters.

The number of undecided voters was 15 per cent — unchanged since August. Four per cent refused to state a preference, down from 7 per cent in August. Four per cent of respondents said they either don't support any of the parties or don't plan to vote, compared to 6 per cent in August.

The biggest beneficiary of the Liberal loss of support was the Green Party, which saw its support leap from single digits to more than 20 per cent.

Progressive Conservative support also appears to be up, but the increase is within the margin of error of the poll.

Proportional representation issue of the month

The poll was taken during a time of a heated debate regarding the province's plebiscite on proportional representation.

• Plebiscite results give rise to new political power

The first day of polling was the last day of voting in the plebiscite. Green Party Leader Peter Bevan-Baker was a particularly vocal opponent to the government's handling of the results.

Bevan-Baker's personal popularity saw a big boost in the poll while MacLauchlan's slid.

While support for the Liberal Party and MacLauchlan are down significantly, support for the government did not move as much.

When asked how satisfied they were with the overall performance of the government, 60 per cent said they were completely satisfied or mostly satisfied. In August 65 per cent said they were completely or mostly satisfied. The margin of error for that part of the poll was 5.6 percentage points

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