NATIONAL PULSE – Satisfaction with provincial governments crashes
Former premier John Horgan with current B.C. Premier David Eby. (Image: Facebook)
BY ANGUS REID INSTITUTE
One of the benefits history offers is perspective. In Canada, that history is unfolding day by day, year over year, and one of the stories being penned as the calendar pages turn is the stark and growing dissatisfaction with government services since 2020.
After the COVID-19 pandemic altered the course of millions, if not billions, of lives, Canadians looked to their governments for answers and guidance. The latest data from the non-profit Angus Reid Institute finds Canadians growing weary of the response.
As the nation collectively explores the pandemic blast radius, levels of contentment across key issues – health care, education, housing affordability, addictions policy, and others – are sliding further downward.
Currently, when considering both two top issues in nearly every region of the country – health care and the cost of living – respondents in every province canvassed voice less than 36 per cent satisfaction with their respective governments on each. Dissatisfaction on each issue exceeds seven-in-10 nationwide.
With respect to health care – a core issue coming out of the largest public health crisis in generations – the proportion saying their government has done well on this file has dropped in half as a national average over the past four years, from 49 per cent in early 2020 to 24 per cent now. This includes a fall from 63 to 27 per cent in British Columbia and 47 to 19 per cent in Ontario.
Overall, there are zero provinces in this study that have seen their average approval ratings for the year on any of four key measures – health care, housing affordability, education, or drug and addiction policy – improve from 2020 through 2023.
The one bright spot for provincial governance is in overall economic management. While each government is largely panned on its inflation and cost of living response, an average of half in Alberta (51%), Saskatchewan (56%), and Quebec (48%) said their government was doing a good job in economic stewardship throughout 2023.
The spotlight will be on a few provincial governments this year, as British Columbia, Saskatchewan, and New Brunswick are all scheduled to hold elections in the next 12 months. Whether any provincial government can break this trend and turn the views of their constituents around, however, remains to be seen.
Note: Because its small population precludes drawing discrete samples over multiple waves, data on Prince Edward Island is not released.
More Key Findings:
- 2024 provincial priorities are not difficult to discern. Cost of living is the top provincial issue in every region canvassed other than Nova Scotia, where it ranks second. Health care is the number two issue in every region other than Nova Scotia, where is ranks first.
- Satisfaction with provincial governments in handling education has dropped from an average of 45 per cent in 2020 to 32 per cent in 2023. This includes a fall from 50 to 26 per cent in Quebec and 46 to 24 per cent in New Brunswick.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
I would be interested in seeing the 2018 & 2019 polls. I think that the 2020 & 2021 polls may be inflated b/c during the first year or so of COVID, people had overmuch faith in government health policies, which waned as it became known that the vaccine did not prevent infection or transmission, shutting down small businesses was unnecessary and debilitating for the economy, isolating people led to multiple mental-health disorders and suicides and meanwhile drug deaths and overdoses escalated. In other words, we in BC went from “Rah rah Bonnie Henry” to “What punitive measures is she going to impose on us now?” and I think that’s reflected in this poll summary.
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As if it will be Todd Stone and team to the rescue? Provincial MLAs are vapid and self-serving. David Eby wants a tent city in every yard, Milobar won’t return a call and it’s only Mother Nature that seems able to clear the streets of riff raff.
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Incumbents should by rights be eviscerated next election, particularly in BC. We are on the slip n slide of narcotics use and housing wherever you want, so long as someone else pays for it, being a “human right”. We have BC quietly passing law that allows for the provision of fentanyl to children, without the consent of their parents, and various progressive tropes that are menacing the functioning of society as we know it.
These fools were so taken by progressive ideas such as allowing an addict to shoot up next to your child at the park, that they didn’t think of the consequences of letting this genie out of the bottle.
We get the governments we deserve.
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