The P.E.I. government saw a sharp drop in the number of Islanders satisfied with their performance in a poll released Thursday, but the Liberals still enjoy a comfortable lead as the choice for government.

Satisfaction with the government's performance fell from 63 per cent in February to 42 per cent in the poll, which was conducted between May 10 and June 4.

While satisfaction rates were down, the poll suggested that was not having an impact on the Liberals' electoral hopes. Forty–seven per cent of decided voters in the poll turned to the Liberals as their choice, a drop of just three per cent, which is within the poll's margin of error.

The Opposition Progressive Conservatives failed to capitalize on the drop in satisfaction. The party's support appeared to fall amongst decided voters, from 33 to 26 per cent.

"It's fascinating that the Liberals have dropped 21 per cent in terms of overall satisfaction in just one quarter," said Richard Raiswell, a history professor at UPEI. "But what's really interesting is that the Conservatives haven't been able to make any hay out of this."

NDP surge

The party with the best news in the poll was the NDP, whose support went up from 11 to a surprising 18 per cent. The NDP has never broken double digits in a general election.

The poll also took a look at the popularity of the party leaders. The numbers for Premier Robert Ghiz sunk to a new low: 35 per cent.

"I think probably the most important issue has been the HST," said Don Mills of Corporate Research Associates, the company behind the poll. "We know that tends to be a controversial issue."

"I think the Liberals did a lousy job in sort of preparing the ground work for this," said Raiswell.

Conservative Leader Olive Crane saw her popularity hold from one year ago at 22 per cent.

"She doesn't sort of come across as the focal point of the party," said Raiswell. "As for the Premier, well, it's very early days. We're three and a half years away from an election, so I don't think we can write him off just yet."

Three hundred Islanders were surveyed for the Corporate Research Associates poll. It is considered accurate to within 5.7 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.