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A recent poll from Insights West indicates British Columbians aren't happy with NDP leader John Horgan's snap election call, but the BC NDP is out front in the early days of the provincial election.

The poll indicates 58 per cent of British Columbia residents oppose Horgan’s decision to call a snap election, but despite that, the BC NDP holds an early lead with 42 per cent of decided voters, ahead of the BC Liberals at 29 per cent. The BC Greens have 16 per cent and the BC Conservative party sits at 12 per cent in the early going.

In total, 30 per cent of respondents say they are “strongly opposed” to the election, while 27 per cent say they are “somewhat opposed.”

According to Insights, 20 per cent of all eligible voters are still undecided, with weeks of the election campaign still remaining.

“In the early stages of this race, it appears that despite public opposition to the snap election, voter intentions have not shifted dramatically,” said Steve Mossop, president of Insights West in a release Thursday.

“Approval ratings for Horgan are among the highest of any sitting premier, and our previous government report card (June) indicated that his government has received top marks for its handling of COVID-19 as well as many other government files,” he said. “The question is whether Horgan will be forgiven for calling an early election and whether COVID-19 infection levels can be contained during the election period.”

Results are based on an online study conducted from September 22 – 23, 2020 among a sample of 1000 B.C. residents. The margin of error—which measures sample variability—is +/- 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.