The slow summer months have been neither good nor bad for Nova Scotia’s three leading political parties, according to polling data released Thursday.
A Corporate Research Associates poll has the NDP still in front at 37 per cent, with the Liberals nipping at their heels at 35. Those are the exact same numbers as CRA’s poll in May.
CRA president Don Mills said the numbers are good news for the NDP, who have seen their support levels dwindle since last July’s historic victory.
“They’ve stemmed the bleed in terms of their support, and stabilized their position relative to where it was going the previous couple of quarters,” he said.
The Progressive Conservatives saw a slight drop of three points to 21 per cent support, while the Greens made ground by the same amount, coming in at seven per cent.
A full 42 per cent of those polled, however, were undecided, didn’t know, refused to answer or said they did not plan to vote. Mills said part of that number reflects the low levels of voter participation in the province.
With no threat of an election until 2013, the NDP can afford low polling numbers for the time being. But Mills said time is ticking away, with several tough decisions to come.
The poll is said to be accurate within 3.4 percentage points, 95 times out of 100.
