The front-runner in the Mississauga mayoral byelection hasn’t changed, but others in the race to replace Bonnie Crombie are gaining steam, according to a new poll.
The poll, conducted this month by Liaison Strategies, shows now former Mississauga councillor Carolyn Parrish continuing to hold the lead among mayoral hopefuls, but her nearest competitors, Dipika Damerla and Alvin Tedjo, appear to be bridging the gap with around 11 weeks to go in the byelection campaign.
The poll, which surveyed 902 Mississauga voters between March 21 and 22, indicates that Parrish held the lead over six other candidates in the race with support from 18 per cent of voters, the same percentage as a January Liaison poll showed.
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Damerla, who polled at 12 per cent support in January, saw a three-point increase, with 15 per cent of survey participants saying they would vote for the Ward 7 councillor if the election was held today.
Ward 2 Coun. Alvin Tedjo saw a five point increase between the January and March polls, going from eight per cent support to 13 per cent in the recent survey.
Peter McCallion, whose support was polled for the first time by Liaison this month, had six per cent of respondents behind him, placing the local business person ahead of Stephen Dasko (five per cent), George Tavares (four per cent) and David Shaw (two per cent).
Thirty-seven per cent of voters remained undecided, the March poll showed.
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Mayoral hopeful Carolyn Parrish leads the pack of candidates in decided voter support, a new poll shows.
In an interview with the Mississauga News, Liaison principal David Valentin said that while there’s still plenty of time left before June 10, the mayoral byelection looks like it’s turning into a “three-way race” between Damerla, Parrish and Tedjo.
Valentin says that Parrish is still well-positioned as the leader among mayoral hopefuls, but the recent poll could indicate “it’s time to find new ways to engage those undecided voters” for the former Ward 5 councillor and the other candidates.
“There is that large pool of undecided voters,” he said. “They’re the number one group in Mississauga and if they were able to vote undecided, undecided would win. So it’s still, I think, to a great extent anyone’s race.”
Among decided voters, Parrish continued to lead with 29 per cent support in this month’s poll but her support had slipped from 35 per cent in the January survey, while Damerla stayed at 24 per cent support.
Tedjo saw a five-point gain among decided voters, going from 16 per cent support in January to 21 per cent this month. McCallion has 10 per cent support from decided voters, the poll shows.
A poll this month from Liaison Strategies asked Mississauga residents what the most important issues facing the city were.
Liaison Strategies graphic
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The poll also asked respondents to rank the most important issue facing Mississauga and found crime and affordable housing to be the leading concerns, followed by traffic and transit.
The mayoral byelection, which was called after Crombie resigned to lead the Ontario Liberals in January, currently has 13 candidates as of Monday morning.
Registered mayoral candidates Amir Ali, Jamie Dookie, Frank Fang, Syed Jaffery, Peter Tolias and Nathalie Xian Yi Yan were not part of the poll, which has a margin of error of 3.26 percentage points, 19 times out 20.
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