4 SEPTEMBER 2020 (OTTAWA, ON) – Despite Premier Stephen McNeil announcing his intentions on stepping down, the governing Liberals maintain a healthy lead over the opposition Progressive Conservatives, a new Mainstreet Research poll has found.

Among decided voters, the Liberals have 43.6% support while the PCs have 30.1%. The NDP has 19.8%, while the Greens have 5.6%.

To read the full report with numbers, please click here.

The poll was conducted on August 30th and September 1st and surveyed 610 Nova Scotians over the age of 18. The margin of error on this poll is +/- 3.97% and is accurate 19 times out of 20.

The poll also asked whether six potential provincial Liberal leadership candidates would make Nova Scotians more or less likely to vote Liberal. The six potential candidates are; former federal cabinet minister Scott Brison, Central Nova MP Sean Fraser, former Minister of Community Services Joanne Bernard, Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development Zach Churchill, Minister of Immigration Lena Metlege Diab, and Minister of Lands and Forestry Iain Rankin.

Just under 31% said that they would be more likely to vote Liberal if Brison were Liberal leader, almost double of that the next potential candidate, Sean Fraser (16.5%). Bernard is in a statistical tie with Fraser with 16.4% of Nova Scotians saying they are more likely to vote Liberal if she were leader.

The only candidates where a majority of Nova Scotians said they were less likely to vote Liberal for if they were leader were Metlege Diab (52.1%) and Churchill (54.7%).

The poll also asked what the top issue was for Nova Scotians. Just under half (49%) said health care and COVID-19 was the most important issue to them, followed by jobs and the economy (18%) and education (9.2%).

Mainstreet NovaScotia 02september2020 by Mainstreet on Scribd