46% of Calgary voters still undecided on mayoral pick ahead of Oct. 20 election

With a little over a month to go until election day in Calgary, nearly half of voters say they still don’t know who they want as the city’s next mayor.

Leger is out with new poll data Monday, which asked Calgarians their opinion of the mayoral candidates.

Individuals included in the poll were Jeromy Farkas, Jyoti Gondek, Sonya Sharp, Jeff Davison, Brian Thiessen, Jeffery Clauson, Jaegar Gustafson, and Grant Prior.

Those polled were also able to select ‘someone else,’ ‘I won’t vote,’ or ‘I don’t know/undecided.’

The most popular of all options was ‘I don’t know/undecided’ at 46 per cent; that is up slightly from the last data collected by the firm on the same subject. Data collected at the end of August had 45 per cent of voters saying they didn’t know who’d they’d pick for mayor.

That polling also saw Gondek with a narrow lead over Farkas as the most popular pick.

In the September data, Farkas came out as the top candidate, with 14 per cent of voters saying they’d mark an ‘X’ next to his name. The incumbent Gondek was close behind at 13 per cent, followed by Sharp at seven per cent, Davison at five per cent, and Thiessen at three per cent.

Clauson and Gustafson, who had their names adding to the polling selection this round, each came out with one per cent, as did the ‘someone else’ option. Grant Prior, who was also added for this round of data collection, polled at less than one per cent.

Nine per cent of those polled said they don’t plan on casting a vote.

Monday’s polling data was collected from 442 Calgary residents 18 and older between Sept. 5 and 8. Leger says there is a margin of error no greater than ±4.7 per cent (19 times out of 20) for the total sample.

Calgarians will go to the polls on Oct. 20.

The nomination period closes Sept. 22, meaning more names could be added to the ballot before election day.