Brian Gallant's Liberals keep wide lead over opposition

Brian Gallant's Liberals are continuing to enjoy a large lead in popular support over their political rivals, according to the latest Corporate Research Associates poll.

The Liberals were preferred by54 per cent of decided voters, compared to 27 per cent for the Progressive Conservatives.

The Green Party passed the NDP for third place in the quarterly political poll, released Thursday by CRA.

The Greens were picked by 10 per cent of decided voters as their favourite party, compared to nine per cent for the NDP.

The NDP's support fell to nine per cent, downfrom 14 per cent lastNovember, while the Greens saw the party's support move to 10 per cent, up from nineper cent in November.

The People's Alliance of New Brunswick had the support of one per cent of decided voters.

The telephone poll was taken between Feb. 10 and March 2. The overall sample has 802 New Brunswickers and a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

The margin of error for the party preference findings is 4.4 percentage points.

Gallant is continuing to hold a lead in personal support.

He's been selected as the best person to be premier by 43 per cent of respondents. By comparison,interim Progressive Conservative Leader Bruce Fitchwas picked by 17 per centand Green Party Leader David Coon was named by 10 per cent of the poll's respondents.

NDP Leader Dominic Cardy was selected by eight per cent,and People's Alliance LeaderKris Austinwas picked by three per cent.

The Gallant government is also seeing increased support in terms of its overall performance.

The CRA poll found 56 per cent of those polled were completely or mostly satisfied with its performance,compared to 24 per centwho were completely or mostly dissatisfied.

The Liberals have launched a strategic program review that is seeking to find $600 million in spending cuts or increased revenue measures in order to lower the provincial government's deficit and debt.

Finance Minister Roger Melanson has also introduced a bill that, if passed, would end the requirement for a referendum on increasing the harmonized sales tax.