Not surprisingly, a poll taken on the weekend in B.C. reveals voters are “ambivalent” about the election result.
It’s not surprising for a couple of reasons: Firstly, nobody is sure what the final result of the election is at this point. It will be at least another week before the dust settles and final results are known. And, secondly, no matter who “wins,” it’s pretty much a split decision given the Greens potentially hold the balance of power.
What was surprising about the poll was that 18 per cent of the voters were undecided on whether they would vote for the same party if given a second chance.
Of course, it’s all speculation on why those voters might change their vote. It could be that they were lukewarm Liberal supporters who voted Green, or they were Greens who voted NDP as a strategic dump-the-Liberals move. It could just be that they voted without thinking it all through and, after some thought, have come to a different conclusion.
Hindsight in elections is like hindsight in everything, pretty useless.
What the poll was conclusive about was that NDP supporters were unsatisfied with the results. Compare that to the 49 per cent of British Columbians who said they were very satisfied or somewhat satisfied with the outcome and seven per cent who said they were not sure, and you have, well, again a split province.
What was perhaps most interesting about the poll was that 58 per cent of voters would prefer the Green party to work with the governing party on an issue-by-issue basis.
The majority were not in favour of the Greens forming a coalition with the Liberals, and of those in favour of the Greens forming a coalition, 57 per cent said they would approve of the Greens forming a coalition with the NDP.
Will any of these rather lukewarm poll results have an impact on the party leaders’ decisions?
Probably not.
But we suspect the general voters’ ambivalence could change quickly if any of the party leaders start taking liberties with their voters’ trust.
