of people 43% think N.S. heading in right direction: survey

A new survey on the provincial government from Abacus Data also shows 44% of Nova Scotians positively view Premier Tim Houston

CITYnews halifax \ Chris Stoodley

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A new survey on Nova Scotia’s provincial government indicates that many people are satisfied with the government and its decisions, even if some would like to see more progress towards issues like health care.

On Monday, Abacus Data released State of the Province: How Do Nova Scotians Feel About the Provincial Government and Their Political Choices? The Ottawa-based polling firm surveyed 500 Nova Scotians from April 14 to 21, exploring people’s overall mood, views on the government and top issues in the province.

“This survey was finished last week,” says Abacus Data CEO David Coletto. “About half of Nova Scotians approve and about a quarter disapprove [of the government]. That’s a really solid place for the government eight months into its mandate.”

According to the data, 43 per cent of Nova Scotians think the province is heading in the right direction, while 35 per cent think it’s on the wrong track. On top of that, 22 per cent of people are unsure.

Premier Tim Houston is also quite popular among Nova Scotians. The survey indicates 44 per cent of people view him at least mostly positive while 18 per cent view the Premier Houston at least mostly negatively.

“When we ask them how they [the government] are doing on a number of issues, for the most part, people are feeling pretty good that the government’s delivering as expected,” Coletto told The Todd Veinotte Show. “But there’s a little bit of choppy waters on probably the more key issue in the province, which is health care.”

When Abacus Data asks people about the top issues in the province, Coletto says Nova Scotians often see health care as the most important. Housing, especially in the Halifax area, and the cost of living also round out the top three issues.

“When we ask people, ‘How well do you think the provincial government’s done so far?’, only about one out of five say, ‘I think it’s making good progress on its promise to fix health care,'” Coletto says.

Coletto adds that the rest of the respondents either say the government has done nothing or has made some progress but less than they thought it would have.

He says some people might’ve raised their expectations when the Houston government was elected in 2021, but still haven’t seen enough progress in fixing the province’s health care system.

“You had the premier last week almost changing the language he’s using from “fixing the system” to “improving it,” recognizing that maybe they set the bar really high,” Coletto says. “All the work I’ve done on health care, it is a challenge. You can’t just hire family doctors and get them to move to the province overnight. You can’t reduce the wait time for specialists.”

He adds that those are the two biggest issues Nova Scotians identify in terms of the province’s health care system.

“But I do think governments can signal the things that they are going to do or trying to do as a measure, recognizing that it isn’t going to happen overnight,” Coletto says. “I think it’s all about expectation, and the PC Party set really high expectations and now, they’re feeling a little bit of the pressure.”

Still, the data shows that it hasn’t caused most people to reject the government or desire to vote them out.

Narrative Research’s latest quarterly poll shows 67 per cent of respondents are satisfied with the Houston government. Moreover 39 per cent of respondents prefer Houston as Nova Scotia’s premier.

To prevent people from becoming impatient, Coletto says government officials must show the public they’re working towards their goals.

“They need to see both the premier [and] the minister of health out there, consistently talking about this issue, showing that they’re rolling their sleeves up, they’re connecting the issues people care about with specific government action,” he says. “They’ve got time, but that time will eventually run thin.”