Stefanson pandemic performance support slides: poll
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 27/01/2022 (1021 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Premier Heather Stefanson may be relatively new to the job, but Manitobans already believe her handling of the COVID-19 pandemic response is as bad as that of former premier Brian Pallister.
A Probe Research poll this month has found Stefanson’s performance has gleaned the support of only three out of 10 Manitoba residents — a level Pallister had slumped to before the Tory leader announced his resignation in August. Stefanson took over the role in November.
Health Minister Audrey Gordon’s numbers aren’t much better.
Only four in 10 Manitobans say Gordon is doing a good job shepherding the province through the pandemic — a 12 per cent drop since October.
“Wow, that’s quite a pretty clear message to this government… that Manitobans are not happy,” Kelly Saunders, an associate professor of political science at Brandon University, said Friday.
“Not only is the pandemic an important issue, it is ‘the issue.’ There’s no question it will be the ballot box issue (the next election must be held on or before Oct. 3, 2023) because of the length, breadth and damages of the pandemic.”
The poll is the latest to show the popularity of the Tories — the premier of almost three months — is much lower than the 47 per cent the party polled at before the 2019 election.
In December, Probe’s omnibus poll put the Progressive Conservative party at 37 per cent support, just two percentage points higher than the six per cent bump it got in September, when Pallister officially stepped down.
The Probe Research poll also found:
Premier Heather Stefanson’s approval for handling the COVID-19 pandemic was at 31 per cent; then-interim premier Kelvin Goertzen was at 61 per cent in October; then-premier Brian Pallister was at 29 per cent in June and 41 per cent in October 2020.
The Tory government’s performance in protecting the health of Manitobans was at a high of 77 per cent in June 2020, tumbled to 46 per cent in October 2020, went back up to 50 per cent in October 2021, and was now at 40 per cent.
The Tory government’s performance in dealing with the economic impact of the pandemic was at 61 per cent in June 2020, down to 45 per cent in October 2020, 49 per cent in October 2021, and was now at 40 per cent.
Only 46 per cent of Manitobans believe the provincial government is doing a better job compared to western neighbours Alberta and Saskatchewan. That’s down from 77 per cent in October 2020.
An Angus Reid poll last week put Stefanson’s approval rating at 21 per cent — lowest among her peers in the country. That poll also showed one in five Manitobans approved of Stefanson’s handling of the pandemic.
Saunders said the pandemic is a window into the effectiveness of earlier Tory government moves, including shutting down of some Winnipeg emergency rooms, reorganizing hospitals, and overall cutbacks to reduce debt.
“It goes much deeper than ‘Omicron (variant) is fading,’” she said. “It will be very difficult for them to effectively manage and rebound from this.
“It will be really hard for (Stefanson) to carve another image. She’s been painted with this brush and I think it will stick.”
Probe principal Curtis Brown also says the numbers show “Manitobans are not in the mood to give Heather Stefanson a pass or be really pleased with the job they perceive her to be doing. People are less impressed with the job she is doing.”
While two leading politicians are low in the polls, it hasn’t pulled down Manitobans’ belief in two of the bureaucrats who have been the face of the public health fight against COVID-19.
Dr. Joss Reimer, medical lead for the vaccine rollout, and Dr. Brent Roussin, chief provincial public health officer, have the support of seven out of 10 Manitobans for the work they are doing. (Seventy-seven per cent of Manitobans approve of the job being done by Reimer, with 71 per cent for Roussin.)
University of Manitoba political studies Prof. Royce Koop said it is interesting to see the difference in the numbers between politicians and bureaucrats.
“It shows a certain level of sophistication on the people responding to this poll,” said Koop.
As for the premier, he said the poll shows Stefanson has a lot of work to do.
“Right from the beginning, she had wanted to make a clean break from Brian Pallister’s legacy, and she didn’t really do it,” he said. “There were some changes but, fundamentally, people don’t see a huge difference in how premier Stefanson’s approach to the pandemic is.
“There’s probably a feeling the pandemic will come to an end and then the party will have a chance to move beyond it, but time is running out,” he added.
Overall, the poll says the provincial government’s performance is at the lowest point since the beginning the pandemic, with only two in five (a drop of 10 percentage points since October) believing it has done a good job protecting the health of Manitobans.
The government also didn’t get good marks for its handling of the economy through the pandemic, with only 40 per cent (a drop of nine percentage points since October) approving of what it is doing.
The poll of 800 Manitoba adults was taken through an online survey conducted Jan. 19-26, using the company’s proprietary panel supplemented with respondents from a large national panel provider.
No margin of error for an online panel survey can be given, but a random and representative sample of 800 adults would be accurate within plus or minus 3.5 per cent, 19 times out of 20.
kevin.rollason@freeepress.mb.ca
Kevin Rollason
Reporter
Kevin Rollason is one of the more versatile reporters at the Winnipeg Free Press. Whether it is covering city hall, the law courts, or general reporting, Rollason can be counted on to not only answer the 5 Ws — Who, What, When, Where and Why — but to do it in an interesting and accessible way for readers.
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History
Updated on Friday, January 28, 2022 10:24 PM CST: Fixes typo
