A majority of voters in the province say they would have been “very upset” if the BC Liberals had formed the government again.
Vancouver, BC [October 30, 2020] – A majority of British Columbians who cast ballots in this year’s provincial election commend the campaigns of two contending political parties, a new Research Co. “exit poll” has found.
In the online survey of a representative sample of British Columbian voters, 59% describe the campaign of the governing BC New Democratic Party (NDP) as “positive”, while 28% brand it as “negative”.
Just over half of voters (53%) believe the campaign of the BC Green Party was “positive”, while 25% deem it “negative.”
The results are different for the BC Liberals. While two-in-five voters (41%) think the BC Liberal campaign was “positive”, 46% describe it as “negative.”
More than half of British Columbian voters (55%) say they would have been “very upset” if the BC Liberals had formed the government again. Majorities of voters in Vancouver Island (65%), the Fraser Valley (59%) and Metro Vancouver (55%) feel this way, along with 45% of voters in Southern BC and 38% of those in Northern BC.
About two-in-five British Columbian voters (39%) say they would have supported the BC Liberals in the most recent election if Dianne Watts had been their leader—a proportion that rises to 42% among women, 44% among voters aged 18-to-34 and 43% in both Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley.
Across British Columbia, 38% of voters think the BC NDP and the BC Green Party should consider a formal merger into a single provincial political party. This idea is more popular among those aged 18-to-34 (48%) and those who voted for the BC NDP this year (46%) but is only supported by 30% of BC Green voters and 19% of those who reside in Vancouver Island.
The notion of a merger between the BC Liberals and the BC Conservative Party is supported by 34% of voters—but climbs to 62% among those who cast a ballot for BC Liberal candidates this month.
A comparison of voting behaviour shows that 42% of BC NDP voters in 2020 cast a ballot for the federal NDP in the 2019 federal contest.
“Liberal Party voters at the federal level were almost evenly split between the BC Liberals (31%) and the BC NDP (25%) at the provincial level,” says Mario Canseco, President of Research Co. “Conversely, three-in-five Conservative Party voters in the last federal election (60%) were BC Liberal voters in 2020.”
Methodology:
Results are based on an online study conducted from October 22 to October 25, 2020, among 832 adult British Columbians who voted in the 2020 provincial election. The data has been statistically weighted according to Canadian census figures for age, gender and region in British Columbia. The margin of error—which measures sample variability—is +/- 3.5 percentage points, nineteen times out of twenty.
Find our data tables here and download the press release here.
Photo by James Wheeler
For more information on this poll, please contact:
Mario Canseco, President, Research Co.
778.929.0490
[e] mario.canseco@researchco.ca