New poll: Nova Scotia government’s approval rating has recovered from recent plunge

A new poll suggests the approval rating for Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston’s government has partially recovered from the plunge it took following a round of big budget cuts in February.

The online survey from Abacus Data shows that 35 per cent of those surveyed said they approved of the government’s performance, up five percentage points from July.

About 44 per cent of respondents indicated their approval of the government in January, but that support plunged to 31 per cent in May, three months after the government tabled a budget that cut more than $300 million in spending.

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Protests followed and the premier eventually reinstated $53 million in grant reductions, most of which were for  people with disabilities and seniors, as well as African Nova Scotians and Indigenous students.

The survey also showed that 40 per cent of those surveyed would vote for Houston’s Progressive Conservatives, a level unchanged from July.

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Meanwhile, the Opposition New Democrats climbed two points to 33 per cent, with the Liberals unchanged at 22 per cent.

“The Houston government’s approval and right-direction numbers have therefore improved without producing an increase in PC vote share,” the Abacus report says. “Instead, the NDP has made a modest gain while the governing party continues to hold its ground.”

The online survey included responses from 600 Nova Scotians between Aug. 8 and Sept. 5.  The research firm says the survey data were weighted according to census figures to ensure the sample matched Nova Scotia’s population by age, gender, education and region.

The Canadian Research Insights Council, an industry organization that promotes polling standards, says online surveys cannot be assigned a margin of error because they do not randomly sample the population.