Politics

New poll suggests cracks are appearing in Premier John Horgan's Teflon shield

by Charlie Smith on June 14th, 2022 at 6:03 AM
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      B.C. premier John Horgan's approval rating has been among the highest of Canada's premiers throughout the pandemic. It helped deliver a majority NDP government in 2020 and the resignation of then B.C. Liberal leader Andrew Wilkinson.

      But an Angus Reid Institute poll this month suggests that Horgan's appeal is fading.

      His approval rating fell seven percentage points to 48 percent from the last poll. It still leaves Horgan as the third most popular premier in the country, ranking only behind Nova Scotia's Tim Houston (62 percent) and Saskatchewan's Scott Moe (51 percent).

      Houston, Newfoundland and Labrador's Andrew Furey, and Quebec's François Legault all had larger percentage drops in popularity than Horgan.

      "In addition to a growing debacle surrounding the near $1-billion plan to demolish and rebuild the Royal B.C. Museum (more on that will be coming from ARI), Horgan’s government was forced to defend a lack of funding for new school construction, a shortage of family doctors and overall being “out of touch” with regular British Columbians by opposition parties. The problems—and more—keep piling up at the door of the premier’s office," the Angus Reid Institute stated.

      The polling organization did not mention Horgan's response to COVID-19. In the last session of the legislature, B.C. Green Leader Sonia Furstenau hammered away on this topic, accusing the government of failing to educate the public on the risks of Long COVID and airborne transmissions.

      On June 13, the B.C. Green party announced that Furstenau and fellow B.C. Green MLA Adam Olsen will go on a "Provincial Healthcare Tour" this summer to gather information on the "collapsing public healthcare system".

      In the meantime, well-educated social-media users who might have been inclined to vote NDP in the past continue expressing their frustration over the Horgan government's handling of the pandemic.

      Here are a few examples:

      The Angus Reid Institute conducted its poll from June 7 to 13 with a randomized sample of 5,032 Canadian adults who are part of the Angus Reid Forum. It's considered to have a margin of error of plus or minus two percent, 19 times out of 20.

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