Perhaps it’s still the honeymoon phase, but Nova Scotians have become even more starry-eyed for Premier Darrell Dexter and his New Democrats, according to new survey results.
The latest poll from Corporate Research Associates shows 53 per cent of people across the province are satisfied with how the new provincial government has performed so far, while 60 per cent of Nova Scotians who responded would vote in the NDP again if an election was held today.
That’s a jump up from the actual election results in June, when the New Democrats snagged 45.3 per cent of the popular vote, the Liberals trailed with 27.2, the Progressive Conservatives were ousted from government with 24.5 and the Greens got 2.3.
Don Mills, president and CEO of Corporate Research Associates, yesterday called the numbers in the poll commissioned by his research firm a case of “post-election euphoria.”
“These numbers are artificial to some extent,” Mills said.
“They haven’t really taken any significant action yet on any major file,” he added. “My expectation is that they’re going to make the tougher decisions early in the mandate so that they’ll have time to recover from the decisions that people will perhaps not be as happy with.”
The popularity of the premier himself is also soaring, with half of Nova Scotians already saying they’d prefer Dexter as their province’s next leader, over Stephen McNeil of the Liberals, Ryan Watson of the Greens and whoever ends up filling the shoes of former premier and PC leader Rodney MacDonald.
NDP chief of staff Dan O’Connor agreed yesterday Nova Scotians are deep into “a honeymoon period,” adding that warm and fuzzy feeling for the new government in the House will likely fade.
“This is the kind of support that most governments in Canada do not sustain over a long period of time,” he said.
O’Connor added the government is focused on keeping promises made during the election campaign, not the polls.
