'Paul Davis is no Stephen Harper': PC leader reacts to grim election poll

Progressive Conservative leader Paul Davis says a new poll that puts his party 47 points behind the Liberals in public support comes as no surprise.

• Liberals poised to win election with landslide, poll suggests

"It's exactly what I expected to see. This poll was done right on the heels of the federal election. Justin Trudeau was still in his honeymoon period," said Davis as he headed out to campaign on Friday.

"Newfoundland and Labrador had spoken loudly about the need for change in Ottawa and that Stephen Harper had to go. And we supportthat, we agree with that," said Davis.

But he saidthe provincial election is a different race.

Liberal landslide?

9 years ago

Duration 5:33

David Coletto of Abacus Research speaks with David Cochrane

"Paul Davis is certainly no Stephen Harper, and Dwight Ball is certainly no Justin Trudeau, and we're going to show this to people as the campaign goes on," said Davis

The poll, by Abacus Data, showed66 per cent of voters would choose a Liberal candidate if an election were held now, compared with 19-per cent support for the PCs and 15 per cent for the NDP.

More than half the people surveyed said they wouldn't even consider voting for the Tories.

"Half of the people polled said the government today is doing a good job, so how do you square that?" said Daviswho admitted the party has its work cut out to keep up morale.

He said the shine will wear offLiberal LeaderDwight Ball, and he repeated a message from hiscampaign kickoff Thursday about the Liberal record when last in power.

"They're building a team that represents strongly in the backroom what Liberals of the 90s represented, and we know what happened when they were in power. Our economy trashed, it dropped like a rock. They laid off thousands of public servants."

NDP not worried

While the New Democrats are last in the poll, NDP Leader Earle McCurdy said he's not worried.

"At a similar date in the Alberta election, the Alberta NDP and Rachel Notley were at 18 per cent in the polls and look what happened there," said McCurdy.

"That poll was taken in the couple of days whenthe full spotlight of the nation wason the new Prime Minister, Mr. Trudeau," he said.

"Let's see what happens when we get a couple of weeks into the campaign....The Nov.30 poll is the one we're all going to sink or swim on."

Dwight Ball, meanwhile, said he's campaigning as usual, regardless of the poll.

"We take absolutely nothing for granted in this election," said Ball.

The Abacus poll involved 800 adults who were interviewed by telephone between Oct. 30 and Nov 4.

The poll has a margin of error of 3.5 per cent, 19 times out of 20.