The next province-wide election is slated for October 2024 and much has changed since the last general election.
David Eby has filled the shoes of former premier John Horgan, the Liberal Party has changed their name and their branding to ‘BC United’ and many issues at the top of British Columbians minds’ have changed drastically.
According to Research Co., a BC-based statistics company, through all these changes and the shift in what people care about the BC NDPs have an increased amount of support over their biggest competition, the BC United Party.
In a province-wide survey, Research Co. found that nearly half (46%) of decided voters would vote for the NDP candidates in their ridings.
BC United only garnered one-third of British Columbians’ votes at 33% and the BC Green Party claimed the remaining 16% of decided voters in the survey.
The survey was able to boil down the voters to their demographics in age and gender through the detailed questionnaire participants took.
“Female decided voters in British Columbia pick the BC New Democrats over BC United by a two-to-one margin [50% to 24%],” says Mario Canseco, President of Research Co.
“The two parties [BC NDP and BC United] are practically tied among male decided voters [42% to 41%].”
When the survey respondents were asked if they would consider voting for each of the four main parties in their constituency, 61% said they would “definitely” or “probably” vote BC NDP.
That rating is much lower for the BC NDP’s competition, BC United had 46%, the BC Greens had 37% and the BC Conservatives had just 25% say they might vote for the respective parties.
When it comes to party leaders, Premier Davic Eby maintains a 59% approval rate, while BC Greens leader Sonia Furstenau is sitting at 40%, BC United leader Kevin Falcon is close to her at 38% and BC Conservative leader John Rustad has only an 18% approval rate.
Issues that British Columbians care most about nearly a year and a half away from this next election are homelessness, healthcare, crime and safety, economy and jobs as well as the environment.
Of those issues, since 2020, public safety and crime has jumped by 14% in how much people care about that topic. Comparatively, none of the issues shifted by more that a few per cent in either direction.
Do you think Research Co.’s survey accurately reflects the state of politics in BC? Let us know in the comments section!
