MQO Research spoke with 600 residents of Nova Scotia 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 governing Liberals now hold a slim lead. Among decided and leaning voters:

Current Liberal support edged down 3 percentage points to 42%.

PC Party support was up 5 percentage points to 36%.

NDP support was down 5 percentage points to 15%.

Support for the Green Party was relatively unchanged this quarter at 6%.

The undecided / no vote group was relatively unchanged at 42%.

“Liberal support in Halifax is the continued source of their political strength,” said Stephen Moore, Vice – President at MQO Research. “The Liberals are double the next closest party in Halifax while they trail the Tories in the rest of the province.”

“The NDP are at a two year low in terms of public support and they need to be worried,” noted Moore. “Weakened NDP support was one of the first steps toward the Green surges in New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.”

Government Performance

The rating for the leadership of Premier Stephen McNeil edged up from a mean score of 4.7 last quarter to 5.0 in October (on a 10-point scale).

Provincial Outlook

The economic outlook for the province was relatively unchanged in October. 29% of Nova Scotians reported their outlook on the economy had worsened over the past three months (down marginally from 33% in July), while 52% indicated their outlook had stayed the same (trended up from 49%) and 17% felt things had gotten better (trended up from 14%).

The Atlantic Matters poll was conducted by telephone from October 18th to November 3rd, 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 – Vice-President

smoore@mqoresearch.com

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