Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall, left, and Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty share a laugh in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, July 25, 2012.Reuters
Saskatchewan's Brad Wall is the most popular premier in Canada, according to a new Angus Reid poll.
Ontario's Dalton McGuinty, who resigned in October but sits until the province's Liberals pick a new leader, had the lowest approval rating with only 23 per cent. Mr. McGuinty's numbers have dropped eight points since May.
Mr. Wall, whose Saskatchewan Party won a resounding re-election in 2011, has received consistently high marks in approval polls. He is the only premier on the list with a score of higher than 50 per cent.
Alberta Premier Alison Redford, still at No. 2 in the rankings, has seen her support drop sharply since May. Her approval ratings fell from 60 per cent to 47 per cent, while 46 per cent now disapprove of her performance. She won re-election in April after trailing the opposition Wildrose early in the campaign.
Manitoba's Greg Selinger is close behind and Quebec's Pauline Marois places fourth with 41 per cent, a bump of nine points over her predecessor Jean Charest.
Other premiers had approval ratings of less than 40 per cent, while most opposition leaders got high marks.
Nova Scotia Liberal Stephen McNeil and British Columbia NDP Leader Adrian Dix led the pack, with ratings of 53 per cent.
In Quebec and Ontario, the third-party leaders beat the provinces' official oppositions. Coalition Avenir Québec Leader François Legault led interim Liberal leader Jean-Marc Fournier 50 per cent to 35 per cent, while Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath was more popular than Progressive Conservative Tim Hudak 48 per cent to 35 per cent.
The results come from an Angus Reid online survey of 6,619 Canadians, weighted to reflect a demographically representative sample of the entire adult population. The margin of error is plus or minus 1.2 per cent, 19 times out of 20. The survey was conducted from Nov. 25 to Dec. 3.
Chris Hannay