EMBARGO LIFTED: POST TO WEB RELEASE

Good morning all,

As valued clients and Eye on Alberta subscribers, we are pleased to provide you with this advance copy of material being released tonight through our media partners CTV (and other outlets thereafter).

These excerpts cover provincial political leadership appraisals in Alberta.

PLEASE NOTE: These materials are embargoed until 5:00 p.m. (Mountain) this afternoon (October 15, 2014) – please do not share them publicly until after the embargo.

The detailed edition of Eye on Alberta will be available for client/subscriber secure download on Thursday morning (October 16, 2014)

Premier Prentice’s One Month Report Card

Jim Prentice was sworn in as Alberta’s new Premier on September 15, and in that short span of time since, has become the most popular provincial leader in Alberta (well, statistically tied with the Wildrose’s Danielle Smith, but more popular taking into account “negatives”).

Currently, 45% of Albertans say they approve of Jim Prentice as Premier, compared to 29% who disapprove and another 26% who unsure how to rate his performance to date.  By comparison, Danielle Smith enjoys the approval of 44% of Alberta voters, Brian Mason (his last wave of polling as NDP leader) 33% and Liberal Raj Sherman 29%.

Prentice’s personal approval has steadily climbed since entering the leadership race – back in May, 34% of Albertans approved of “candidate” Prentice vs. 23% disapproved.  It is a stark contrast to leadership ratings of the last two PC Premiers over the past 12 months – Alison Redford resigned from office registering a disastrous 18% approval (75% disapproval), while care-taker Premier Dave Hancock managed to climb to 34% approval, but never broke into “net positive” territory (40% disapproved at the peak of Hancock’s popularity).

Short story: Prentice’s honeymoon is underway, and he has room to grow.  Typically, ~5% of respondents are uncertain about how to rate the performance of sitting premiers, which means roughly 20% of Albertans are “still evaluating”.  Expect this level of uncertainty to drop by the new year.

Prentice’s personal popularity is behaving as one might expect for a new premier, the poll indicates that while Alison Redford may be gone, she is not necessarily forgotten (or forgiven) by voters.  Voters respond positively to Prentice, but a more muted and skeptical in relation to “the party” and “government”.  One example.  When asked whether the provincial government is on the right track or wrong track since Prentice assumed the helm, 38% say “right track” compared to 21% “wrong track”.  But a plurality are unsure – noting it is too early to tell.

Cheers,

MH

Marc Henry

ThinkHQ Public Affairs Inc.

To review poll results, click: CTV Release Eye on Alberta Excerpts Oct 15 2014

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