B.C. Premier John Horgan has rated just ahead of Ontario’s Doug Ford in a new survey by Vancouver-based Angus Reid Institute.
Horgan’s year has largely consisted of unyielding interprovincial political tension with Alberta over the TransMountain pipeline expansion project, and tumult over his minority NDP government’s referendum on proportional representation.
The latter, part of the grand political bargain made with the BC Green party in order to secure the “supply and confidence” agreement the NDP needed to take power in the legislature. It was also a year that saw the go-ahead for a $40 billion investment in a liquefied natural gas project in northern B.C.
Horgan’s job performance approval has softened since the 2017 election, but he still holds the approval of 43 per cent.
Doug Ford came in with a 42 per cent approval rating. Only Quebec and Saskatchewan premiers Francois Legault and Scott Moe were above the 50 per cent mark.
Legault, whose Coalition Avenir Quebec formed a majority government this past October, has the approval of 59 percent of Quebecers. Fifty-seven per cent feel the same way in Saskatchewan about their premier Scott Moe, who has been on the job for almost a year.
The quarterly survey of Canadians finds the middle of the pack holding their own, relatively speaking, while the least approved-of provincial leaders are at or just above the 30 per cent mark.
Nova Scotia’s Premier Stephen McNeil had the lowest approval in the country, ending the year the same way he started it, with a 30 per cent approval rating.
