Brian Gallant's Liberals hold lead in latest poll

Brian Gallant's Liberals are continuing to hold a lead over their political rivals despite a series of unpopular decisions, according to the latest Corporate Research Associates poll.

The Liberals had the support of 36per cent of decided voters in August, which is down marginallyfrom 38 per cent in May.

The CRA poll, which was released on Thursday,indicated the Progressive Conservatives were preferred by 28per cent of decided voters, the same level of supportas the previous poll.

The NDP had 25 per cent support, a small increase from the 23 per cent the party received in May.

The Greens, meanwhile, were picked by 10 per cent of respondents as their preferred party compared to 11 per centin May.

The telephone poll was taken between Aug. 10 and Sept.2. The overall sample has 810New Brunswickers and a margin of error of 3.4percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

The margin of error for the party preference findings is 4.6percentage points with a sample of 447 people.

Government satisfaction stabilizes

The Liberals have come under fire from various groups across the province in recent months overschool closures, a fight over funds for a DNA sequencing machine in Saint John and the elimination of some smaller courthouses and Service New Brunswick stations.

On Thursday, the Liberals even reversed course on one of the unpopular decisions revolving around how much seniors were charged for their nursing home care.

But theCRA poll found the satisfaction level of the Gallant government seems to have stabilized.

The poll indicated38 per cent of respondents are completely or mostly satisfied with the Liberal government's performance, which is down from 40 per cent from the last poll.

Meanwhile, the number of people dissatisfied with the government stayed constant at 50 per cent.

The popularity of New Brunswick's political leaders also failed to budge significantly.

Gallant is picked by 26 per cent of respondents as the best person for premier, followed by interim Tory Leader Bruce Fitchat16 per cent, NDP Leader Dominic Cardy at14 per cent,Green Party Leader David Coon at 10 per cent and People's Alliance Leader Kris Austin at four per cent.