Despite a muted leadership convention and swearing-in ceremony, Nova Scotia Liberals seem to be enjoying the traditional support bump provided by a new leader.
Premier Iain Rankin vaulted to the party leadership in a virtual convention that was capped off with the delegate vote announcement on Feb. 6 at the Halifax Convention Centre.
On Feb. 23, Rankin and his 16-member cabinet were sworn in at the convention centre in an online ceremony.
Over that period of time, the Liberal party increased its lead in support among Nova Scotians, jumping four percentage points to earn the backing of 51 per cent of residents, according to an MQO Research poll.
Among decided and leaning voters, the poll found that Liberal support climbed from 47 per cent in December to 51 per cent.
The Progressive Conservatives have 27 per cent of support, up marginally from 25 per cent last quarter, followed by the NDP at 15 per cent, down five percentage points. The Green party came in with four per cent support in a poll of 401 Nova Scotians taken from Feb. 10 to Feb. 25.
Among those polled, Rankin was the top choice as the best premier for Nova Scotia. Rankin was the choice of 46 per cent of those polled, followed by Opposition Leader Tim Houston at 30 per cent and Gary Burrill of the New Democrats at 18 per cent. Thomas Trappenberg of the Greens was the top choice of four per cent.
The Liberals continue to enjoy strong support provincewide across both urban and rural areas, according to the Atlantic Matters poll that is considered accurate within 5.9 percentage points 95 per cent of the time.
The Liberals’ strong polling support is consistent across genders and age groups.
The Liberal government will take their poll support to Province House on Tuesday for the first sitting of the legislature in a year. The Liberals hold a slim majority, with 26 of the 51 seats. The PCs have 18 seats, the NDP five and there are two independents.
The House, which had not met since last March, was officially prorogued on Dec. 18. Tuesday’s session will be officially opened at 1 p.m., with the speech from the throne, read by the lieutenant-governor, forecasting the government’s plan for the session.
As of mid-afternoon Wednesday, there still had not been an announcement of what the new House session will look like with regard to COVID-19 protocols and regulations.
The parties had negotiated a plan for a potential but scuttled fall sitting in 2020 that would have a smaller proportional percentage of each caucus sitting in-person at Province House and the remainder of the MLAs participating remotely. Votes would be by proxy.
The updated House plan could finally be revealed Thursday after an in-person cabinet meeting at the legislature..
