Bob Mackin
The Toronto firm that included the name of a Vision Vancouver supporter’s baby in a September opinion poll is working on a followup.
Mainstreet Research’s brief, Oct. 3 robocall, obtained by theBreaker, did not include questions about issues, like the one a month earlier. Instead, it asked about support for mainstream mayoral candidates Hector Bremner, David Chen, Connie Fogal, Fred Harding, Ken Sim, Kennedy Stewart, Shauna Sylvester and Wai Young.
It also asked “if the election were to be held today, which municipal party will you support in the city council elections?” Listed, in order of appearance, were: IDEA Vancouver, Green Party of Vancouver, NPA, OneCity, ProVancouver, Vancouver 1st, Yes Vancouver, another party or undecided.
The list of parties omitted COPE, Vision Vancouver and Coalition Vancouver. The last name of IDEA mayoral candidate Connie Fogal, the widow of Harry Rankin, was mispronounced as “FAY-gul.”
Mainstreet president Quito Maggi said by email that, to his knowledge, Fogal’s name had been pronounced correctly.
“If you can point me to the COPE mayoral candidate, we would be happy to add them to our poll,” he also wrote.
COPE’s Patrick Condon left the race in July after suffering a stroke. theBreaker noted that the Greens and OneCity, other parties without mayoral candidates, were in the list. “I will ensure that all non-mayoral parties are excluded as per your advice,” Maggi wrote.
Mainstreet’s Sept. 4-5 poll surveyed 862 residents with a plus/minus 3.34% margin of error, 19 times out of 20. It found Stewart (14.4%) led Bremner (7.4%) and Sim (7.5%), but a whopping 41.8% of respondents were undecided and 1.1% chose Maya Richards, who theBreaker determined to be the baby of Vision Vancouver supporter Rory Richards, after the poll was published. That poll omitted COPE and OneCity from the party questions and Vancouver 1st’s Fred Harding from the mayoralty questions.
Mainstreet is aiming for a comeback in 2018 after wrongly predicting, in polls for Postmedia, that Naheed Nenshi would lose the Calgary mayoralty in 2017.
Vancouverites will elect a new mayor and city council on Oct. 20.
Listen to part of the Oct. 3 Mainstreet Research robocall. Note: demographic questions and answers were cut for brevity and privacy.
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