Moving on up: N.L. Liberal support on rebound, says MQO poll

The governing Liberal party is showing 40 per cent support among decided and leaning voters up 10 points from previous polling in July, and in first place according to an opinion poll done in October.

• Liberal support continues to drop: poll

The quarterly political poll byMQO Research showed the Progressive Conservative partyhas slipped six points into second place, with 31 per cent approval among decided and leaning voters.

The New Democratic Party dropped sixpoints as well to round out the bottom with 27 per cent. Butthe percentage ofundecided voters is up jumpingfrom 24 per cent of voters in July to 31 per cent in October.

When it comes to overall leadership, Premier Dwight Ball is still unpopular, just a littleless so. His approval rating was 3.9 [on a scale of one to 10] compared with 3.2in July. More than 75 per cent of voters continue to rate his performance at a five or lower.

Still stressed

The rise in popularity for the Liberals and their leader comes after a steady decline all year, and the public's view of the provincial economy remains fairly pessimistic.

• Paul Davis to resign as PC leader, 'in best interests of party'

While economic indicators were up in October, more than 60 per cent of respondents felt the economy is only getting worse.

People surveyed were alsomore concerned about their personal situations, with65 per cent reporting a "high level of concern" about the cost of living, rating it as eight or higher on a 10-point scale an increase of six percentage points since the summer with 30 per cent sayingtheir general stress level was an eight or higher.

It's a rosier picture for the federal Liberals.

That government hada six percentage point improvement to 72 per cent voter support since April 2016. Federal Conservative support was steady at 15 per cent, while support for the NDPdipped from 18 per cent to 12.

The Atlantic Matters poll was conducted over the phone from Oct. 18 to Oct. 22 with 600 randomly selected eligible voters from across Newfoundland and Labrador. The margin of error is plus or minus four percentage points 19 times out of 20.