UNBC Political Science Lecturer Jason Morris weighed in on the declining approval ratings for Dr. Bonnie Henry and Adrian Dix.
A poll conducted by Leger shows public support for Henry dipped to 75% last month, compared to 79% in December.
Conversely, public backing for Dix took a bigger nosedive going from 72% in December to 67% last month.
Morris told Vista Radio pandemic fatigue and a slow vaccine rollout appear to be the two main culprits for the decline.
“Whether that impacts peoples opinion of the overall pandemic policy of what governments are doing will probably be divided by those that are greatly skeptical of even wanting to have this vaccine, to begin with.”
“It’s a reasonable hypothesis that ordinary citizens, business owners, and everybody alike would start feeling some fatigue and weariness over public health order restrictions.”
He added while the dip in support raises a few eyebrows, many politicians would still love to have their level of support.
“If the support is going down a little bit it would still be considered remarkably high in a politician or political party’s eyes who would love to have that kind of support.”
When asked what the consequences could be if public support for both Dix and Henry continues to wane, Morris cited some of the resentment and opposition towards the pandemic in the Eastern part of the country as a perfect example.
“For governments who are essentially ruling over us they need to have legitimacy and when that legitimacy starts waining we can see more things like no-mask protests such as in Toronto and in other places and less respect and support of our political leaders themselves.”