Alberta's decided voters split between support for UCP, NDP: Poll

A new poll suggests Alberta’s UCP and NDP are neck-and-neck in their popularity amongst Alberta's decided voters ahead of next year’s general election.

The poll from Leger, released on Friday, surveyed 1,000 Albertans aged 18 and older from Oct. 7 to 10.

It indicates a near-equal proportion of decided voters would vote for the NDP (44 per cent) or the UCP (42 per cent).

However, a large gap remains in terms of who Albertans think would be best suited as premier, with NDP Leader Rachel Notley receiving 36 per cent of support, compared to Premier Danielle Smith at 22 per cent.

In total, 25 per cent of respondents said they didn't know which leader of Alberta's political parties would be the best premier.

The poll also found that decided voters in Edmonton are more likely to vote NDP than those outside of Edmonton or Calgary.

In addition, results suggest 30 per cent of Albertans surveyed agree that Premier Danielle Smith will bring about positive changes.

A total of 29 per cent think Smith will do a better job than former premier Jason Kenney did when it comes to standing up for Alberta against the federal government.

The biggest challenge for Smith appears to be in the health care portfolio, in which only 20 per cent of those polled think she will be able to fix problems in Alberta’s health care system.

Since the poll was a non-random internet survey, a margin of error is not reported. If the data were collected through a random sample of 1,000 people, it would have a margin of error of +/- 3.1 per cent, 19 times out of 20.

To see the complete poll results, you can visit Leger's website.