Alberta government ranks last among provinces for public perception of pandemic response: poll

Alberta's United Conservative Party has the lowest public satisfaction inits handling of the COVID-19 pandemic of any provincial government by a largeand growingmargin, a new poll suggests.

Only 27 per cent of respondents in Albertasaid they were "very" or "somewhat" satisfied with how Premier Jason Kenney and his government managed the crisis, according to the Leger poll released this week.

More than half of respondents in every other provincesaid they were satisfied with their governments' handling of COVID-19, suggests the online poll from Leger conducted between Dec. 30 and Jan. 3.

Kenney's government lagged a full 30 percentage points below the second lowest ranked, Ontario PremierDoug Ford's Progressive Conservative government, which satisfied57 per cent of respondentsin that province, the poll suggests.

The poll suggests satisfaction with how otherprovincial governments handled the pandemic ranked at:

• 78 per cent satisfaction in theAtlantic provinces (which were grouped together in the poll).
• 72 per cent for Premier Franois Legault'sCoalition Avenir Qubecgovernment in Quebec.
• 69 per cent for Premier John Horgan and his NDP government inBritish Columbia.
• 66 per cent for Brian Pallister's PCs in Manitoba and 58 per cent forScott Moe'sSaskatchewan Party in that province, although bothhad smaller sample sizes so the results might be less accurate.

The territories weren't included in the poll.

Poll happened as UCP faced travel controversy

Thepoll was conductedin the midst of ballooning controversy over recent international visits bymembers of Kenney's cabinet, caucus and key staff amid a pandemic that has given Alberta at times the highest total COVID-19 case count of any province.

After CBC News revealed that his then minister of municipal affairs, Tracy Allard, had vacationed in Hawaii with her family over Christmas,Kenneyheld a news conference last Friday to say he would notfire or demoteAllardor others in government who travelled,as they did not break the law.

Kenney saidhehadn't been clear with staff about whetherthey should be travelling but critics pointed out his own government has warned for months against non-essential travel.

The cries of elitism and hypocrisy continued to mountamid outrage frommany Albertans who had been abiding by increasingly strict COVID-19 restrictions set out by the provincial government.

On Monday, after the polling period, the government did an about-face.Kenney accepted theresignations of Grande Prairie MLA Tracy Allardas minister of municipal affairs andJamie Huckabayas his chief of staff.Kenney also demotedfive other UCP MLAswho travelled internationally over the holidays.

Continuing drop fits with previous polls

Kenney's governmentfaced criticismfor weeks in the fall and early winter when it resistedcalls to impose tougher restrictions despitenew infections soaring. At one point, Alberta had more active cases than Ontario, which hasmore than three and a half times the population.

The total number of active cases in Alberta only began to slowly decline after the government heeded those calls, from a peak of21,138 onDec. 13, the day after a raft ofnew provincial restrictionswent into effect, to13,839 active cases on Monday.

The latest poll isn't the first to suggestAlberta's government hasthe lowest level of satisfaction among Canada's 10 provincial governments.

Last week, anotherLeger pollthat looked at the various premiers' handling of the crisis conducted Dec. 4 to Dec. 20 suggestedKenney's satisfaction rate was 30 per cent or three percentage points higher than his current ranking.

At that point, one other premier hadless than 50 per cent satisfaction Saskatchewan's Scott Moe, at 39 per cent. Moe's government has also been criticized for not responding sooner to a steady increase in infections.

Duane Bratt, a political scientist at Mount Royal University in Calgary,saidthe continuous drop of satisfaction in Albertafits with previous polls.

WATCH | Kenney demotes 6 MLAs after holiday travels:

Kenney demotes 6 MLAs after holiday travel

4 years ago

Duration 2:11

"The bigger surprise would have been if there had been an increase in support given the horrible month of December that we have just gone through," said Bratt.

"While the second wave has hit Canada harder than the first wave, it has been most pronounced in the province of Alberta."

Bratt thinks the most recent numbers are reason for concern for Kenney and the UCP.

"This is the type of issue that people aren't going to forget in two years' time," Bratt said. "People are not going to forget that, you know, 1,200people died in 2020."

'Elitism and entitlement is the kryptonite of the right'

Calgary-based pollster Janet Brown agreed with Bratt that thetravel scandal would leave a lasting impression on voters. She said it'sorders of magnitude more seriousthan others in recent memory that have toppled governments in Alberta.

"Self-righteousness is the kryptonite of the left," said Brown. "Elitism and entitlement is the kryptonite of the right."

Ian Large, executive vice-presidentfor Leger in Alberta, saidthe fallout over MLAs vacationing out of province was happening while the survey took place so he expects to see further drops in satisfaction levels.

"In two weeks when we do this again, I suspect there is going to be a big drop. That's a tough one for a government to wear."

The latestonline poll sampled 1,506 Canadians and was not assigned a margin of error, but for comparison purposes, a probability sample of this size of poll would have a margin of error plus or minus 3.09 per cent, 19 times out of 20. There maybe higher margins of error in regional breakouts because of smaller sample sizes.