A new provincial survey shows many Albertans turning away from Danielle Smith’s government—and the teachers’ strike is at least partially to blame. Leger polled voters for its Government of Alberta Report Card in early October, just as the labour dispute was beginning. Results show 61 per cent of respondents said they felt Alberta is headed in the wrong direction, up 10 points from May’s survey. And of those who took part in the survey, more than twice as many believe teachers are handling the situation better than the government. Nearly half said the strike has worsened their opinion of the premier. “It’s not surprising,” said Duane Bratt, a political scientist at Mount Royal University. “I’ll be very interested to see if, when we get polling done when the strike’s over, do they get a bump or do they hurt even more? “When you listen to the government, it’s about salaries. When you listen to teachers, it’s about the student experience. Parents are buying the student experience.” Leger’s survey also paints a picture of slipping support for the current governing party as a whole. Its findings say if a provincial election were held today, the United Conservative Party would capture 44 per cent of the vote among decided voters, compared to 39 per cent for the Alberta NDP. Support for the former has gradually declined since the start of the year, while those favouring the opposition are increasing in size. Part of that could be due to the parties’ leaders. The report card suggests NDP head Naheed Nenshi is now the most favourably viewed leader, with 43 per cent of Albertans expressing a positive opinion of him. Smith’s favourability has declined to 38 per cent, down six points since May. MLA Peter Guthrie, ousted from the UCP, believes Smith is inching the conservative brand in the wrong direction. “There is a long laundry list of things that Albertans are upset with, and they’re starting to push back,” he told CTV News. “The UCP has really become a party of division, and they’ve pushed themselves to the extreme. The (progressive conservative) voter has been pushed out of the party.” No one from the province was available for an interview Wednesday. Instead, the UCP caucus sent a statement to CTV News that reads, in part, “Parents and teachers were impacted and stressed during the strike, and we recognize that. That’s why we passed Bill 2: to restore stability for families across Alberta.” It continued, “Our United Conservative caucus remains committed to ensuring our province is the best place to live, work and raise a family.” Leger’s survey was conducted from Oct. 10 to Oct. 12 and polled 1,045 Albertans aged 18 or older. While no exact margin of error can be calculated, Leger says it would be no greater than three per cent, 19 times out of 20.
