Almost One-Sixth Unaware of NDP Leadership Race

Almost One-Sixth Unaware of NDP Leadership Race

More than seven in ten do not know who could win an election

Toronto, September 21^st – In a random sampling of public opinion taken by The Forum Poll™ amongst 1350 Canadian voters, almost half (48%) say they are not at all closely following the NDP Leadership campaign, while almost one-sixth (14%) say they did not know that the Federal NDP were having a leadership race.

More than a quarter (28%) say that they are following the race somewhat closely, while few (5%) say they are following it very closely.

One in twenty (5%) say they are following the race as closely as possible.

Of those that identify themselves as NDP supporters, (7%) say they are following the race as closely as possible, while (6%) say they are following it very closely.

More than two thirds of NDP supporters (39%) say they are following the race somewhat closely, while four in ten (40%) say they are not following the race closely at all.

Just under one in ten (9%) NDP supporters say they didn’t know a leadership race was occurring.

Few think any of the candidates could become Prime Minister

More than seven in ten (72%) say they do not know which of the NDP leadership candidates is most likely to become Prime Minister.

Jagmeet Singh (11%) leads the field of candidates, followed by Charlie Angus (7%), Guy Caron (6%), and Niki Ashton (4%), who are all statistically tied for second.

Of those respondents that say they are supporting the NDP, Singh is the favourite with just under two in ten (19%) saying he is most likely to become Prime Minister.

Second, is Charlie Angus with one-sixth (15%), with Guy Caron (8%) and Niki Ashton (4%) well behind.

More than half (54%) of NDP supporters say they do not know which of the candidates is most likely to become Prime Minister. 

Jagmeet Singh leads amongst NDP supporters

Amongst respondents that say they are supporting the NDP, two in ten (20%) say they are most likely to vote for Singh in a general election, with Niki Ashton (16%) and Charlie Angus (13%) statistically tied for second.

Fewer than one in ten (8%) NDP supporters say they are most likely to vote for Charlie Angus.

More than four in ten (42%) NDP supporters say they do not know which of the candidates they would be most likely to vote for in a general election.

Amongst the general public, more than two-thirds (68%) say they do not know which of the leadership candidates they would vote for in a general election.

 

“For a party that believes in its chances to be a dominant force at the Federal level, one-sixth of Canadians not knowing that the NDP are having a leadership race should be a significant concern,” said Dr. Lorne Bozinoff, President of Forum Research. “But right now, Jagmeet Singh leads amongst those that say they are NDP supporters, and while not all of them may be eligible to vote for him in the leadership race, it’s still a solid foundation of support to build a campaign on.”

 

Lorne Bozinoff, Ph.D. is the president and founder of Forum Research. He can be reached at lbozinoff@forumresearch.com or at (416) 960-9603.