Jeffrey leads convincingly in Brampton mayoral race
7-in-10 disapprove of Susan Fennel
TORONTO APRIL 28th, 2014 – In a random sampling of
public opinion taken by the Forum Poll™ among 822 voters in the city of
Brampton, 7-in-10 voters disapprove of the job Susan Fennell is doing as mayor
(71%), and this is stable since the last time polled this question (March 30 -
72%). Disapproval is especially common to males (78%), the wealthiest ($80K to
$100K - 82%, $100K to $250K - 84%), the best educated (post grad - 77%), those
with a British Isles ancestry (79%) and past provincial PC voters (77%).
Linda Jeffrey leads all mayoral contenders
In a two way match-up with Fennel, former
Ontario cabinet minister Linda Jeffrey outguns Susan Fennel by a factor of
three (60% to 23%).
When John Sanderson is added to the mix,
Jeffrey's vote share drops to 4-in-10 (39%), but Sanderson (26%) and Fennell
(18%) cannot catch her.
In a match where Gurratan Singh is tested
against the two leading contenders, Jeffrey wins with half the vote (51%) to
one fifth for Fennell (20%) and just one tenth for Singh (9%). Curiously, Singh
does no better among those of South Asian ethnicity (7%) than he does in
general, but fares much better among Asians (22% - caution, small base size).
When all four of these candidates are
matched, Jeffrey wins with well more than a third of the vote (37%), compared
to one quarter for John Sanderson (24%), less than a fifth for Fennell (17%)
and less than a tenth for Singh (8%).
Strong disagreement with official use of city credit cards for
entertainment
The
vast majority of residents say city officials shouldn't be allowed to expense
entertainment of their city-issued credit cards (80%), and just one tenth agree
this is permissible (12%).
Few believe mayor's assurances on spending
Fully
three quarters disagree with the mayor that "there is no scandal in
Brampton" and that the affair is a creation of the media (74%), and just
one seventh agree with the mayor on this point (14%).
Most see Mayor Fennell at fault for spending controversy
Six-in-ten
residents think Mayor Fennell herself as being at fault for the spending
controversy in Brampton (60%), and just one tenth or fewer blame anyone else
(city employees - 10%, media - 7%, card issuers - 6%, someone else - 6%).
Many think crimes were committed in spending controversy
As
many as 6-in-10 Brampton voters think crimes were committed in the recent
spending controversy (60%), and fewer than one quarter think this is not the
case (23%). Close to one fifth have no opinion (17%).
“The
essentials of this race have now settled into place. Linda Jeffrey is the
preferred candidate, and she appears to be set to neatly fillet the now
irredeemably unpopular Mayor Fennel, with a little help from John Sanderson,
should he choose to run. In the meantime, the spending controversy which
bedevils Mayor Fennell isn't going away, and her constituents are pinning it
directly on her. This is not a good way to head into a six month election
campaign," said Forum Research President, Dr. Lorne Bozinoff.
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.
