Saskatchewan, Alberta Residents Most Satisfied With Provincial Governments on Key Issues: New Poll

(Left) United Conservative Party Leader Danielle Smith makes her victory speech in Calgary, Alta., on May 29, 2023. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press); (Right) Saskatchewan Party Leader Scott Moe speaks during the leaders' debate at the Provincial Archives in Regina on Oct. 14, 2020. Michael Bell/The Canadian Press

Saskatchewan and Alberta have scored the highest approval rating from their residents who participated in a new poll.

The Angus Reid Government Performance Index (GPI) asks residents from provinces across Canada on a quarterly basis to participate in a poll and rate the job they feel their government is doing on a measure of 14 different issues, from health care to inflation.

The poll asks if government performance on any given issue is very poor, poor, good, or very good. A final category is “Not sure/Can’t say.”

Overall, said the poll, the most satisfaction is reported in Saskatchewan with a performance score of 43. The majority are pleased with how the province is handling the economy (60 percent), energy policy (61 percent), and the deficit (56 percent).

Alberta, under United Conservative Party Leader Danielle Smith who is beginning her second term in office, takes second place for happiness scores, with a rating of 40 on the GPI. Notably, only Saskatchewan and Alberta scored above 40.

In Alberta, two in five of those surveyed say the government is handling the cost-of-living crisis and health care challenges well.

This is the best in the country on both issues, noted Angus Reid. “Nowhere in the country do more than 38 per cent of residents say their province is handling health care or the cost-of-living crisis well (Alberta leads both categories at 38 per cent),” said the report.

Of those surveyed, a total of 38 percent said Alberta is doing either a good or very good job on cost-of-living issues and inflation. When it comes to health care, 38 percent gave a good score; on the topic of the economy and jobs, 53 percent responded that the province was doing well.

Poor Rating for Other Provinces

Other provinces are not doing so well with their constituents, according to Angus Reid.

Residents of Ontario gave Premier Doug Ford the lowest scores in the country at 21, tied with Manitoba, under Premier Heather Stefanson.

Residents of British Columbia ranked their Premier David Eby at 27, down five points since March, and the lowest ranking in the last decade. Only 15 percent of B.C. residents responded that the province was doing a good job with cost-of-living, and only 11 percent had favourable feedback on the issue of housing affordability.

“Fewer than one-quarter are happy with Premier David Eby’s government in its handling of the cost of living, health care, and housing affordability. Staffing crises in health care remain and the B.C. NDP continues to search for answers to increase the province’s housing stock to increase affordability,” said Angus Reid.

Stefanson is in an election year, and Angus Reid said the Manitoba premier “faces much criticism from constituents on the key issues of health care, inflation and public safety. In each case, at least four-in-five residents believe the government is performing poor.”

Like B.C. residents, those polled from Ontario chose housing affordability as a top issue. On each of the top three issues, less than one in five Ontarians rated the provincial government as performing well.

Premier François Legault’s province of Quebec has a low approval rating, with at least 64 percent of those polled responding that the government was doing a poor job on cost of living and inflation, health care, and housing affordability.

New Brunswick, Canada’s only bilingual province, has voters deeply unhappy with the government’s performance, indicated Angus Reid. The majority responded that the province has “performed poorly on health care, cost of living and housing affordability. In all three cases, at least half believe the province has done a ’very poor job.'”

Meanwhile in Nova Scotia, where residents polled were most concerned with health care (74 percent) and cost of living issues (68 percent), 70 percent of those polled said Premier Tim Houston and his government have done a poor or very poor job with health care. Three-quarters of Nova Scotia constituents said the government’s performance on inflation was poor or very poor.

Things do not fare much better for Andrew Furey, premier of Newfoundland and Labrador. In that province, 80 percent of residents polled said the government was performing poorly on health care (80 percent), badly on handling the cost of living and inflation (86 percent), and poorly on the economy (66 percent).

The poll results come from an Angus Reid Institute online survey conducted from May 30 to June 3, among a random sample of 3,885 Canadian adults. No data was reported for P.E.I. due to its small population.