A newly released national poll ranking provincial premiers by approval ratings puts Nova Scotia’s Premier Stephen McNeil dead last, 11 points below divisive Ontario Premier Doug Ford.

The poll by Toronto-based Dart Insight and Communications is a regular quarterly survey intended to gauge how voters rate their premiers in terms of approval. This particular survey has been conducted since 2013 and asks respondents the following question: “Do you approve or disapprove of the performance of (name of premier),” and follows that question with the option “strongly, moderately or not sure.”

The company says approval ratings aren’t provided for P.E.I. or the Canadian Territories because of “extremely small sample sizes.”

The most recent poll was conducted between Sept. 13 and Sept. 19. It ranks Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe in first place with a 55 per cent approval rating, down 1 per cent over the last quarterly survey. B.C.’s Premier John Horgan is next with a 49 per cent approval rating, followed by Newfoundland’s Dwight Ball at 42 per cent and Manitoba’s Premier Brian Pallister, who also sat at 42 per cent.

Alberta Premier Rachel Notley placed fifth at 41 per cent and Ontario Premier Doug Ford placed sixth at 37 per cent (down 3 per cent from the last quarter). Ford also tied with New Brunswick Premier Brian Gallant.

Ranked eighth was Quebec’s Philippe Couillard with a 31 per cent approval rating followed by McNeil in ninth and last place at 26 per cent.

In its survey, Dart Insight included what it calls notes and pointed perspectives for each premier. For Nova Scotia, pollsters said McNeil had slipped 5 per cent since their last survey, “his lowest ebb since December of 2013” when his approval rating was 25 per cent.

“But as witnessed previously, Premier McNeil can’t be underestimated — in March 2017 his approval rating was at the same level (27 per cent) but in the general election of May 30, 2017 he won a re-elected Majority government with 39.47 per cent of the vote,” the document noted.

“While McNeil recently rebuffed a scathing report by the province’s information and privacy ombudsman who said Nova Scotia’s health department failed to probe whether a minister used a private email address for government business, there was some very good news on the economic front: Standard and Poor’s upgraded the province’s long-term credit rating to its highest ever from A+ to AA-, with a stable outlook.”

Respondents to the poll could opt in for either official language, with results weighted by education, age, gender and region to match the population, according to census data.

The Dart Insight online poll is accurate to within +/- 1.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

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Yvette d’Entremont is a Halifax-based reporter focusing on health and environment. Follow her on Twitter: @ydentremont

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