Can't get no satisfaction

As compiled from quarterly CRA polls passim, going back to 2000, here is a longitudinal study in the net satisfaction ratings for the current PC (blue) and former Liberal (red) provincial governments.

The columns represent the net of very- and somewhat-satisfied poll respondents, minus the very- and somewhat-dissatisfied. (The most recent iteration of the CRA satisfaction question is, "How satisfied are you with the overall performance of the provincial government led by Premier [NAME]?"

Where there are more dissatisfieds than satisfieds, the net-satisfaction index moves below the 0% line. For as far back as there is easily-accessible CRA data, there has never been a government with such poor satisfaction ratings as the current one. Nor has there ever been a government which has run three consecutive quarters in negative satisfaction territory. Indeed, such a generally contented lot are poll respondents in Newfoundland and Labrador, that in only five polls on record did CRA find more dissatisfieds than satisfieds: three of those occasions have been in this calendar year.

And this is just CRA. Angus Reid's figures on a similar poll question have actually been even less favourable to the current governing party.

Most ominously, if you are a sitting Tory MHA, are the realizations that Roger Grimes spent no more time in the net-dissatisfaction part of the graph than Danny Williams did, and that, despite having a relatively stable net-positive rating of between ten and twenty percent for most of his tenure as Premier, Grimes and his party were still dumped from office in October 2003.