Vancouverites are ready for a change at city hall, according to a new poll done exclusively for The Orca.
81% of respondents agreed with the phrase “It’s time for a change, and new parties and people should control city hall.”
This figure was remarkably consistent across gender, age, linguistic and neighbourhood lines, the lowest total being 75% in Downtown and North.
Kennedy Stewart, a former NDP MP running as an independent candidate, has a fairly substantial lead, with 33% of respondents saying they will vote for him, 12 percentage points ahead of his nearest rival, Shauna Sylvester.
Rounding out the poll was 19% for Ken Sim, 16% for Wai Young, and 8% for Hector Bremner.
Stewart’s lead is fairly consistent across the city – with one minor and one major exception. In Downtown and North, Stewart’s lead was down to eight percentage points over Ken Sim, 35% to 27%.
More dramatically, in households whose mother tongue was not English, Wai Young had a narrow lead, 26% to Stewart’s 24%.
The poll also asked about two transportation issues; one general and one specific.
Generally, Vancouver overwhelmingly agree that ensuring road transportation and traffic flow well in the city of Vancouver is important. More specifically, 66% of all Vancouverites also supported keeping the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts, and improving them instead of tearing them down.
Interestingly, the figure was highest among female respondents, with 72% either moderately or strongly agreeing.
The survey, done on behalf of The Orca by One Persuasion Inc., of 318 Vancouver residents was conducted using a representative online panel, between October 11 and 13, 2018. The results have a margin of error of +/- 5.5%, nineteen times out of twenty. The results have been weighted using the latest Statistics Canada census data for accuracy on region, age, gender, mother tongue and past election results.
Maclean Kay is Editor-in-Chief of The Orca
