Poll finds strong support for PC government in Nova Scotia

CITYnews halifax / By Mark Hodgins

A new survey is finding high levels of support for Premier Tim Houston’s government in Nova Scotia.

The poll, conducted by Abacus Data, says provincial vote intention finds 56 per cent support for the Progressive Conservatives. The New Democrats are at 26 per cent and the Liberals at 13 per cent.

“For reference, the PCs earned 53 per cent of the popular vote in the 2024 provincial election,” reads a media release from Abacus. “This means that the governing party is more popular now than they were when Nova Scotians gave them a ‘supermajority’ in the fall.”

The PC party’s support is strong across Nova Scotia but is weakest in the Halifax area, where voter intention is 47 per cent for the Progressive Conservatives and 37 per cent for the NDP.

Related:

• Houston says thousands in N.S. still affected by tariff uncertainty
• ‘Control-mania’: Nova Scotia premier accused of executive overreach with new bill
• Houston heads back to U.S. to talk trade, tariffs

On the job Houston’s government is doing, Abacus finds 50 per cent of respondents approve.

The survey also finds that 60 per cent of Nova Scotians support the government’s response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war.

“Government approval is, however, less strong when Nova Scotians are asked to rate the Premier and his Ministers on some of the ways they are governing,” reads the post from Abacus. “Premier Houston and his Ministers get 39 per cent approval on consulting and communicating with the public, 38 per cent on managing the provincial budget, and 29 per cent on spending taxpayer money.”

As for the leaders, Abacus finds Houston has a net favourability of +22, the NDP’s Claudia Chender +17 and current Liberal leader Derek Mombourquette sits at -3.

According to Abacus, the survey was conducted with 600 adult Nova Scotians over the age of 18 from March 17 to 20, 2025. The margin of error for a comparable probability-based random sample of the same size is +/- 4.1%, 19 times out of 20.