A new poll reveals bad news for the BC Liberals as support for the party has sunk to its lowest level since Gordon Campbell ended his reign as party leader.
Commissioned by Angus Reid Public Opinion, an online survey of 800 British Columbians shows 28 per cent of decided voters and leaners will support the Liberals in the next election, while 42 per cent will support the BC NDP. Conservatives ranked at 19 per cent with the Green Party trailing behind at 10 per cent.
"It's not something that's happening because the NDP has become wildly popular," pollster Mario Canseco told CTV News. "It's more than anything the fact the Conservatives are siphoning off some of those votes."
Canseco added that the NDP are gaining because Adrian Dix is being seen as a leader.
The poll showed Dix has overtaken the Liberals' Christy Clark as the best choice for premier, with 26-per-cent support while Clark has 22 per cent. The two are followed by Conservative leader John Cummins at eight per cent and Green Party leader Jane Sterk at three per cent.
The Liberal Party has also lost a quarter of its voting block to the Conservatives.
"It's a difficult combination -- losing voters to a party that is not going to form the government but not being able to catch up to Dix as a leader," Canseco said.
But Clark says she isn't concerned by the results.
"If I spend my time worrying about polls, I can't spend my time worrying about jobs," she said.
Adrian Dix says the Liberals' attack ads against himself and other politicians have hurt the party's image in the eyes of voters.
"It's not just bad for the province and bad for politics, but it's even bad for Liberals," Dix told CTV News "They need to stop being negative, stop running personal attacks, whether its against me or the Conservatives and Mr. Cummins, and start coming to the table with solutions."
Angus Reid Public Opinion conducted an online survey from Jan. 27 to Jan. 29 among 800 randomly selected Canadian adults. The margin of error—which measures sampling variability—is +/- 3.1%.
