British Columbians do not want a Liberal-Green coalition government: Poll – Calgary Herald

The majority of British Columbians oppose the idea of a Liberal-Green coalition government, according to a newMainstreet/Postmedia poll.

The Liberals won atotal of 43 seats in last Tuesdays B.C. election, one short of the 44 needed to form a majority government. The NDP won 41 seats and the Greens won three.

If the situation after next weeks recounts and counting of absentee ballots continues to point toa minority, a poll conducted by Mainstreet Research indicates that just 27per cent of British Columbians would approve of a Green-Liberal coalition.

The majority of respondents,58 per cent, said they would prefer the Green party to work with the governing party on a issue-by-issue basis ratherthan joining a formal coalition.

If there were to be a coalition, however, the preference was overwhelmingly for the Greens to work with the NDP with57 per cent sayingthey would approve.

The poll indicateda large segment of voters are still unsure of how they feel about the outcome.

According to a poll conducted by Mainstreet Research over the weekend, nearlyone in five of B.C. voters (19 per cent) say they dont know how they would vote if they were given the chance to do so again.

InMetro Vancouver, where 37 per cent of voters said they would vote NDP (versus 30 per cent for the B.C. Liberals and 15 per cent for the Greens), 18 per cent said they were undecided on which party they would support if given another chance.

UBC political science professor Max Cameron saw two different possible reasons forthis post-election ambivalence.

One would be because it was an indecisive outcome, he said, pointing to thelacklustre nature of the overall campaign, with all three parties seemingly on script. Voters just dont know what the result is at the moment, and arent sure how they really feel.

The other was something analogous to sticker shock, he said. There might have been Greens who voted NDP out of fear of splitting the vote and now arent sure.

He also noted the frustration with the outcome among NDP supporters: 57 per cent said they were either somewhat unsatisfied or very unsatisfied with the outcome. (Overall, 49 per cent of British Columbians said they were very satisfied or somewhat satisfied with the outcome, with seven per cent not sure.)

Theyre feeling the victory was snatched away, he said. NDP supporters were done with the B.C. Liberals being in power and wanted to see a decisive switch in power. But Cameron cautioned against thinking the outcome came about because ofthe Greens splitting the vote.

My interpretation is theres more disaffected Liberal voters who found a home with the Greens than anything else, he said.

That is seen in the polls overall picture:an electorate that was verydissatisfied withthe Christy Clark government, as just 28 per cent of voters said they would like to see the B.C. Liberals returning to government. Instead, the clear preference is forthe NDP: 51 per cent said it was time for the centre-left party to form government, with a further 21 per cent calling for the Greens to be in charge.

Mainstreet surveyed a random sample of 1,650 British Columbians from May 11-13.The margin of error for survey results is plus-minus 2.41 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

pjohnston@postmedia.com

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British Columbians do not want a Liberal-Green coalition government: Poll - Calgary Herald