With a little more than a week until election day, the race to become Calgary’s next mayor is wide open, according to a poll done for CBC News.
“To see this higher proportion of people still undecided is quite remarkable. And it’s not just undecided — we’ve got another subset of people who say, ‘I don’t even know who’s in the race,’” said Calgary-based pollster Janet Brown, who conducted the survey of 1,000 Calgary residents through the Trend Research Online Panel between Oct. 1 and 8.
“I’ve never seen anything like this before at the national, the provincial or the local level.”
Thirty-four per cent of voters are undecided, the poll suggests. This close to an election, that number should sit around 12 to 15 per cent, Brown said.
“The other thing that really strikes me is: among those who do have an opinion about this election, it’s a very tight race,” Brown said.
Among decided and leaning voters, former city councillor and 2021 mayoral runner-up Jeromy Farkas, who is running as an independent, leads the pack with 27 per cent.
Twenty-three per cent are supporting incumbent Jyoti Gondek, also running as an independent.
Gondek is tied for second place with Sonya Sharp, who was councillor for Ward 1 and is running with the Communities First political party.
Sixteen per cent said they’d vote for Jeff Davison, who finished third in the 2021 mayoral election. He is running as an independent, though has been endorsed by the A Better Calgary Party.
Rounding out the top five, eight per cent of leaning or decided voters are supporting Brian Thiessen, a former police commission chair and the mayoral candidate with The Calgary Party.
The poll also found that a high number of Calgarians are considering multiple candidates with the Oct. 20 election day quickly creeping up.