Gallant Liberals maintain wide lead among voters, poll suggests

The New Brunswick Liberals continue to hold a wide lead over other political parties,again earning thesupport of at least half of decided voters in the province, according to the most recent survey byCorporate Research Associates Inc.

Support for the Liberals did drop slightly inthepoll released Wednesday, the first taken since Blaine Higgs was elected leader of the Progressive Conservative Party, whichperformed slightly better.

The changes in results for each party were small enough to fall within the poll's margin of error.

The Liberals garnered the support of 53 per cent of decided voters polled by telephone between Nov. 9 and Nov. 30, compared with 54 per cent in August, the figures show.

The Tories, meanwhile, saw an uptick to30 per cent, from 28 per cent.

Premier Brian Gallant remains the most popular leader, but his numbers also dipped, to 36 per cent of those polledfrom 39 per cent.

Support for Higgsis at 21 per cent, up from 15 per cent for interim PC leader Bruce Fitch, according to the poll.

Voter satisfaction with the Gallant government's performance increased to 55 per cent, up from 49 per cent, the poll suggests. One-third of those surveyed said they were dissatisfied, while one in 10 did not offer an opinion.

Greens edge out NDP

Support for the Green Party also increased slightly, to nine per cent from eight per cent, and support for NDP dipped to seven per cent from eight per cent. The People's Alliance of New Brunswick's level of supportremained unchanged at two per cent.

About 34 per cent of voters polled said they were undecided, compared with 32 per centthree months ago, while five per cent refusedto state a preference.

Three per cent said they either support none of the parties or don't plan to vote.

Green Party Leader David Coon is the preferred leader for nine per cent, NDP LeaderDominic Cardy, six per cent,and Kris Austin of the People's Alliance of New Brunswick, three per cent, the poll suggests.

Five per cent of voters polled said they preferrednone of the party leaders, while 21 per cent did not offer a definite opinion.

The poll results are based on a sample of 801 adult New Brunswickers, with the overall results are considered accurate accurate within 3.5 percentage points, 95 times out of 100.