Mainstreet Research confident in poll numbers ahead of Calgary election
Posted Oct 15, 2017 6:10 pm.
Last Updated Oct 15, 2017 11:10 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A polling company that is predicting a Naheed Nenshi loss in Calgary’s mayoral race is so confident in its numbers, it released a scorecard on Sunday to compare competing polls.
Mainstreet Research polls for Postmedia sayBill Smith has a 13 per cent lead over Nenshi with 52 per cent of the decided vote. That’s in sharp contrast to polls from Forum Research and LRT on the Green that find Nenshi enjoys a strong lead. Mainstreet said there’s a lot of bias among some political commentators.
“Certainly I’ve seen a lot of behaviour from political scientists that I would say is quite shocking in this election campaign, and some of it quite frankly is quite appalling. Especially when we see professors who are accusing Postmedia reporters of making up quotes. That, to me, is beyond the pale,” said spokesperson David Valentin.
Valetin points to heavy advance poll turnout, which he says signals voters are demanding change. He believes when the results roll in on Monday night, it will be payback time.
“We’re going to be going through the case study and singling people out and showing what exactly it is they said and did. And I think anyone who comments to the media should expect that their comments are going to receive scrutiny after the fact. I think that’s fair,” he said.
Mainstreet accurately predicted the Alberta’s NDP’s majority election win in 2015, and at the same time, the collapse of the PC party.
