A new poll suggests Mayor Don Iveson’s popularity is on the rise, but city council’s approval rating is down.
The Edmonton mayor’s approval numbers have climbed by six percentage points since October, according to a Mainstreet/Postmedia poll.
“Mayor Iveson’s approval rating is at 58 per cent which is an increase from 52 per cent when we last surveyed Edmontonians in October,” Mainstreet research president Quito Maggi said. “This is a good sign as Mayor Iveson faces re-election later this year.”
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Iveson said he doesn’t take much stock in polls.
“I try not to govern based on polls. I try to do the right thing, and sometimes that means your approval is going to go up, sometimes it means it’s going to go down,” Iveson said.
“But in this case, it’s nice to hear that I have the support of Edmontonians to continue to do the kind of work that I’ve been doing.”
However, Edmontonians are not as positive about the job city council has done. Maggi said Edmonton is one of only two Canadian cities, with Vancouver being the other, that has a negative net approval score of their city council.
Councillor Scott McKeen thinks delays in high profile construction projects like the 102 Avenue Bridge.
“That gets blamed on council, which is fine. That’s where the buck stops, ” McKeen said.
“I think we all have to take it seriously and say how have we failed to meet public expectations and how can we do better.”
Calgary’s city council had an approval rating of 43 per cent in the Mainstreet poll.
“Overall, local city councillors are polling higher than their respective city councils, though they lag on net scores in Toronto and Winnipeg and run about even in Ottawa,” Maggi said.
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The poll was conducted on Jan. 3 and 4 and the margin of error is 3.95 per cent.
Mainstreet is a national public research firm.
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