Introduction

MQO Research spoke with 600 residents of Newfoundland and Labrador to gauge the political temperature in the province for the October edition of our quarterly political poll: Atlantic Matters.

Provincial Politics

According to the latest polling numbers, the Liberal lead widened to 12 percentage points in October. Among decided and leaning voters:

Support for the Liberal Party trended up 3 percentage points to 47%.

PC Party support trended down 3 percentage points to 35%.

NDP support exhibited no change at 16%.

Theundecided/novotegroupjumped6percentagepointsto41%.

“The Liberals lead in every region except Central Newfoundland,” said Stephen Moore, Vice-President at MQO. “In this region, they are tied with the Tories.”

“It doesn’t appear that Crosbie’s recent by-election victory is producing short-term tangible results for the party.”

Government Performance

Rating for the leadership of Premier Dwight Ball was up slightly with a mean score of 5.1 (on a 10-point scale) this quarter (compared to 4.8 in July).

Provincial Outlook

The economic outlook for the province was less pessimistic in October. 42% of residents of Newfoundland and Labrador reported their outlook on the economy had worsened over the past three months, down from 52% last quarter. Meanwhile, 44% indicated their outlook stayed the same (up from 37%) and 11 percent felt things had gotten better (relatively unchanged from 9%).

The Atlantic Matters poll was conducted by telephone from October 12th to October 26th, 2018 and included 600 randomly selected eligible voters from across the province. The margin of error for the total sample is ± 4.0 percentage points 19 times out of 20.

About MQO Research

MQO Research is one of Atlantic Canada’s leading market research firms, providing research insights to clients throughout the region and beyond. Our team includes experts in quantitative and qualitative methodologies and program evaluation. MQO subscribes to the highest standards of information gathering and research ethics in the industry in Canada.

For more information on Atlantic Matters or MQO Research, contact:

Stephen Moore

smoore@mqoresearch.com

Phone: 902-465-3034 / Cell: 902-210-5379

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