New poll shows Liberals still ahead even with lukewarm approval rating

It seems like a contradiction.

Most people in Newfoundland and Labrador aren't happy with the performance of the provincial Liberal government, but if an election were held today, most would vote for the party.

That's the conclusion of a quarterly poll released Tuesday by Corporate Research Associates (CRA).

The survey of 415 adult residents in February showed that 41 per cent of decided voters back the Liberal Party, compared with 44 per cent in November.

One third 33 per centsupport the Progressive Conservative Party,unchanged from the past poll, and 24 per cent favour the New Democratic Party, up from 19 per cent.

However, 61per cent of those polled are not happy with the performance of the Dwight Ball government, a slightly betterrating than the 63 per cent who were dissatisfied in the fall.

How the leaders fared

With regards to leader preference, Premier Dwight Ball and PC Leader Paul Davis are virtually neck and neck, with support of 28 and 27 per cent respectively. Both had a 31 per cent approval rating in the last CRA poll.

The NDP interim leader, Lorraine Michael, went from 19 per cent in November to 23 per cent in February.

A full 22 per cent of those surveyed didn't like any of the leaders or had no opinion.

The CRA poll was carried out by telephone between Feb. 5 and Feb. 28 and is considered accurate within 4.8 percentage points, 95 times out of 100.