A new poll out Friday shows close races are shaping up in Saskatchewan’s two largest cities heading into election day. The Mainstreet/Postmedia poll has the Conservatives leading in Saskatchewan with 34 per cent, followed by the NDP at 24 per cent and the Liberals at 18 per cent.
Change that to Saskatoon and Regina, and a different picture emerges.
In Saskatoon, the NDP are polling at 31 per cent, with the Conservatives at 28 per cent and the Liberals at 21 per cent.
In Regina, six percentage points separate the three parties: 29 per cent Conservative, 24 per cent NDP and 23 per cent Liberals.
“Redistribution has made urban seats in Regina and Saskatoon prime targets for the NDP and Liberals and we can see from the regional numbers that they are well positioned,” said Quito Maggi, president of Mainstreet Research.
“This is going to make for some very interesting riding campaigns particularly in Regina where the Conservatives might be able to run up the middle and win on vote splits.”
In-Depth: Federal Election 2015
Excluding Regina and Saskatoon, the Conservatives are polling at 37 per cent, followed by the NDP at 20 per cent and then the Liberals at 15 per cent.
- Alberta to overhaul municipal rules to include sweeping new powers, municipal political parties
- Canada, U.S., U.K. lay additional sanctions on Iran over attack on Israel
- No more ‘bonjour-hi’? Montreal mayor calls for French only greetings
- Trudeau says ‘good luck’ to Saskatchewan premier in carbon price spat
On the question of how people are basing their vote, 47 per cent said by party and 25 per cent by party leader. Only 15 per cent said they were basing their decision on the local candidate.
“We also asked about strategic voting and almost a third said they will vote strategically this election,” said Maggi. “This will be difficult to execute well however because the regional numbers are so tight.”
“Making things more complicated the numbers are constantly changing.”
The random survey of 2,853 Saskatchewan residents was conducted on Oct. 6 using a mix of landlines and cell phones.
Provincially, the margin of error is 1.83 per cent, 19 times out of 20. In Saskatoon, the margin of error is 2.96 per cent while in Regina it is 3.5 per cent. Mainstreet said the results were weighed by age and gender based on the 2011 census.
Comments