British Columbians’ satisfaction with their provincial government is at its lowest rate in a decade but Premier David Eby is unlikely to face political consequences from voters, at this time, according to Angus Reid Institute.
The pollster’s provincial government performance rating has reached a score of 27 in B.C., putting the province below the nationwide average score of 30 and well below the 34 rating former Premier Christy Clark’s BC Liberal party received in 2017, prior to being unseated from government that summer.
The BC NDP government, under a governance agreement with the Green Party of BC, reached a score of 48 at the end of 2019. Since then it has been on a steady decline, thanks in large part to the higher cost of living, health-care failures and deteriorating housing unaffordability, according to the institute.
However, “despite these criticisms and the decade-low opinion of government performance, the BC NDP is facing little backlash in terms of voter intention,” with 47 per cent support while the opposition BC United Party has 29 per cent support, after re-branding from the BC Liberal title.
The institute says BC United leader Kevin Falcon — a veteran BC Liberal politician turned property development executive — reborn again as party leader in 2022 — is “viewed favourably” by one in five British Columbians, while about half hold an unfavourable view of him.
The institute noted its ratings came before two recent byelections, that saw support for the NDP and BC United drop in Langford-Juan de Fuca, with the NDP getting 53 per cent of votes but the Conservative Party of BC taking 20 per cent of the votes (the turnout was 26 per cent). And in the urban riding of Vancouver-Mount Pleasant the NDP won handily with 68 per cent of the vote, up one percentage point from the previous election.
“A new name and leader have yet to resonate with British Columbians,” said the institute in a June 29 news release.
Among the issues polled, British Columbians said the NDP was doing best in First Nations issues (43 per cent) and the economy and jobs (41 per cent) as well as education (41 per cent).
By comparison only 11 per cent of British Columbians were satisfied with Eby’s government on housing affordability and 13 per cent said they were satisfied with the approach to the public health emergency on opioid deaths and drug use.
