Canadian Governments are losing ground on pandemic approval.
Approval of the federal government’s handling of the pandemic is down to only 50%, the lowest point it has been at since the first wave in March 2020. Since August the share of Canadians who think federal restrictions in place to reduce social contacts and prevent the spread of the virus are too loose has increased from only 32% to 46% now, while the share who say those restrictions are about right has decreased from 45% to only 33% now.
Turning to the provinces, the Ontario PCs have stemmed the bleeding they experienced at the end of December when news broke that their finance minister had left the country, but they have not recovered their losses. Their approval on COVID-19 handling has dropped to 46%, the lowest point it has ever been recorded at. Additionally, nearly half of Ontarians now say that restrictions are too loose (46%) while only 31% say they are just right.
The United Conservative government continues to struggle. In December the share of Albertans who felt restrictions were about right increased from 29% to 40% but now that has dropped back town to only 30% and a plurality now say restrictions are too loose. Over the same period, approval of their overall handling of the pandemic has continued to decline and is now at the lowest point ever recorded with only 29% of Albertans saying they approve.
While the BC NDP government is down on their handling of the pandemic to their lowest point on tracking at only 61%, this remains 8 points above the national average for provincial governments. BC residents are now evenly split on whether restrictions are too loose (41%) or about right (42%).
In Quebec, approve of the CAQs handling of the pandemic is steady since December at 68% and satisfaction with the provincial government is up to 75%, their highest point since April. Nearly half say that restrictions are about right (48%), while the rest are split between saying they are too tight (27%) and too loose (22%).
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