Saskatchewan, Alberta residents most satisfied with provincial governments on key issues: new poll

Saskatchewan and Alberta have the highest approval ratings of their residents who participated in a new poll.

The Angus Reid Government Performance Index (GPI) asks residents of provinces across Canada every quarter to take part in a poll and rate the work they believe their government is doing based on 14 different issues, from health care to inflation.

The poll asks whether the government’s performance is very bad, bad, good, or very good at some point. A final category is “I’m not sure/can’t say”.

Overall, according to the poll, the most satisfaction is reported in Saskatchewan with a performance score of 43. The majority are satisfied with how the province handles the economy (60 percent), energy policy (61 percent) and the deficit (56 per cent). ).

Alberta, led by Danielle Smith, leader of the United Conservative Party, who is entering her second term, ranks second for happiness scores, with a score of 40 on the GPI. Notably, only Saskatchewan and Alberta scored above 40.

In Alberta, two in five respondents say the government is handling the cost-of-living crisis and health care challenges well.

This is the best in the country on both counts, Angus Reid noted. “Nowhere in the country do more than 38 percent of residents say their county is handling health care or the cost-of-living crisis well (Alberta leads both categories with 38 percent),” the report said.

Of those surveyed, a total of 38 percent said Alberta does a good or very good job on cost of living and inflation. When it comes to health care, 38 percent score well; on economy and jobs, 53 percent responded that the province was doing well.

Bad rating for other provinces

Other counties aren’t doing so well with their voters, according to Angus Reid.

Ontario residents gave Prime Minister Doug Ford the lowest scores in the country at 21, tied with Manitoba, under Premier Heather Stefanson.

British Columbia residents ranked their Prime Minister David Eby at 27, five points down since March, and the lowest position in the past decade. Only 15 percent of BC residents responded that the county was doing well on the cost of living, and only 11 percent had positive feedback on the issue of housing affordability.

“Less than a quarter are satisfied with Prime Minister David Eby’s government in dealing with the cost of living, healthcare and housing affordability. Healthcare staffing crises continue and the BC NDP continues to search for answers to increase the county’s housing stock and increase affordability,” said Angus Reid.

Stefanson is in an election year and Angus Reid said Manitoba’s prime minister “is receiving a lot of criticism from voters on the key issues of health care, inflation and public safety. In any case, at least four out of five residents think that the government is performing poorly.”

Like BC residents, Ontario respondents chose housing affordability as a key issue. For each of the top three issues, fewer than one in five Ontario residents rated the provincial government as performing well.

Prime Minister François Legault’s province of Quebec has a low approval rating, with at least 64 percent of those surveyed responding that the government was doing a poor job on cost of living and inflation, health care and housing affordability.

New Brunswick, Canada’s only bilingual province, has voters deeply dissatisfied with the government’s actions, Angus Reid said. The majority responded that the province has “performed poorly in health care, cost of living and housing affordability. In all three cases, at least half think that the province has done ‘very badly’.”

Meanwhile, in Nova Scotia, where respondents were most concerned about health care (74 percent) and the cost of living (68 percent), 70 percent of those surveyed said Prime Minister Tim Houston and his administration have done a poor or very poor job on the field of health. concern. Three-quarters of Nova Scotia voters said the government’s performance on inflation was poor or very poor.

Things aren’t much better for Andrew Furey, Prime Minister of Newfoundland and Labrador. In that province, 80 percent of residents surveyed said the government performed poorly on health care (80 percent), poorly on cost of living and inflation (86 percent), and poorly on economics (66 percent). ).

The survey results come from an online survey conducted by the Angus Reid Institute from May 30 to June 3 of a random sample of 3,885 Canadian adults. No data have been reported for PEI due to the small population.