Today's edition of the Calgary Herald contains a new Ipsos Reid poll measuring provincial party support amongst Albertans.
Notwithstanding the optimistic blatherings of Alberta Liberals, the results show no real growth in support for the Alberta Liberal Party. In fact, the Alberta Liberals are still polling at 9% less than what the party received in the November, 2004 general election:
The April 10 to 20 survey of 800 Albertans found that almost 66 per cent of respondents approve of Stelmach's performance as premier (21 per cent "strongly approve," 45 per cent "moderately approve").
Those ratings aren't far off of Klein's support levels in the last weeks of his leadership (71 per cent) and very similar to the former premier's approval ratings this time last year (65 per cent), shortly after receiving a vote of non-confidence from the party.
"It's a first report card for Stelmach," said Ipsos Reid pollster Cory Davison. "It is consistent with the support given to the Conservative party."
The poll has a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
Yet, backing for the Tories has dipped nine points since Stelmach took the reins in mid-December, the polling numbers show. And Stelmach is struggling a bit to get Calgary and southern Alberta on his side.
The Conservatives remain well ahead of the second-place Liberals, with the support of 59 per cent of decided voters in Alberta, and would still roll to an easy majority government if an election were held today.
The Liberals garnered 20 per cent support, with the NDP at 10 per cent, the Alberta Alliance at six per cent and the Alberta Greens at five per cent.
The results represent a nine-point drop from Stelmach's initial post-election bounce in December (68 per cent), but pollster Davison said the dip was to be expected after the immediate honeymoon with voters ended.
A regional breakdown reveals support for the Fort Saskatchewan-Vegreville MLA is far greater in central Alberta (77 per cent), northern Alberta (70 per cent) and Edmonton (69 per cent), than it is in Calgary (57 per cent).
Back on January 9, Kevin Taft announced that the new Stelmach government would be divided, and that he was moving to position his party as a "government-in-waiting".
Well, based on this latest poll, Albertans will be waiting an awfully long time for a Premier Kevin Taft ...
... and thank goodness for that.
Screencap (click to enlarge):
