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The NDP’s popularity is largely boosted by its dominance of Vancouver Island (48 per cent), where the party holds 11 of 14 seats. The Liberals remain more popular in the interior (36 per cent), where they won seats at the NDP’s expense in the last election, according to the poll.

The two parties are almost within the poll’s margin of error in Greater Vancouver, which is expected be the main battleground in the May 2017 election because it holds many of the swing ridings and almost half of the seats in the legislature.

“We’re seeing three different British Columbias,” said Maggi.

“However there is weakness in the NDP’s support. While 50 per cent of voters say the economy will be important when casting their ballot, only 21 per cent say the NDP are focused on job creation compared to 41 per cent for the Liberals.”

Mainstreet surveyed a random sample of 2,207 B.C. residents by landline and cellphone on Sept. 7 and 8. The poll has a margin of error of +/- 2.09 per cent, 19 times out of 20 and the results were weighed by age and gender based upon the census.

The NDP and Liberals have traded leads in polls by other companies this year. The weighted average by website ThreeHundredEight.com of three previous polls in May and August had the Liberals at 38.5 per cent approval, compared to 31.6 per cent for the NDP and 14.5 per cent for the Greens and 13.6 per cent for the Conservatives.

The Mainstreet poll found relatively high optimism about the economy and personal finances, which is expected to be the key re-election focus of the B.C. Liberals. Yet one in three voters polled were also unsure if the province was headed in the right direction.