From: brewnoser2@gmail.com   
      
   Vancouver Sun - August 8, 2015   
      
   Election 2015: Best leader?  Debater?  Not Harper   
       
   B.C. residents choose Trudeau as top talker, Mulcair as prime minister in   
   snapshot poll   
       
      
   British Columbians who watched the Macleans leaders' debate Thursday chose one   
   politician as the best leader and another as the best debater.  And in neither   
   case do they think it is Conservative leader and Prime Minister Stephen Harper.   
      
   A snapshot poll shows people believe Liberal leader Justin Trudeau narrowly   
   won with his feisty performance, but that NDP leader Thomas Mulcair would make   
   a better prime minister and will win the Oct. 19 election.   
      
   The Mainstreet/Postmedia poll of 1,719 B.C. residents also ranked Harper's   
   performance at the bottom, with only one in five British Columbians thinking   
   he would make the best prime minister.   
      
   The poll, which was conducted immediately after the Thursday night debate and   
   before newscasts carried coverage and analysis of the event, was limited to   
   only British Columbia because of time constraints and a CRTC ruling that   
   polling must end before 8 p.   
   m.   
      
   The organizers of the poll say they also believe such surveys are more   
   accurate if conducted before nightly newscasts air coverage of the event,   
   which they say could skew respondents' answers.   
      
   As such, the poll offers a narrow view of how Canadians in one province viewed   
   the leaders' performances.   
      
   These are early days in the federal election campaign, one of the longest in   
   Canadian history.  So trying to draw too many conclusions from such a rapid   
   and narrow poll is difficult.   
      
   But Quito Maggi, the president of Mainstreet, the polling company, said he   
   believes some aspects of the poll can have national implications.   
      
   "I think this would relate across the board in Canada for all provinces, the   
   perception is that Trudeau outperformed expectations," Maggi said.   
      
   The poll asked three performance-related questions of those who said they   
   watched the debate: who did the better job in the debate, who would make the   
   better prime minister, and who would win the election.  Respondents were also   
   surveyed as to who they    
   would vote for if there was an election today.   
      
   Overall, 26 per cent felt Trudeau did a better job in the debate, followed by   
   Mulcair at 23 per cent and Green party leader Elizabeth May at 22 per cent.     
   Twenty per cent said Harper did the best job.   
      
   But when broken out by age groups and by region, the results varied markedly.   
   Among those 65 and over, Harper won the day with 26 per cent saying he   
   performed better.  And for those between the ages of 35 and 49 and 50 to 64,   
   Trudeau was the choice, with    
   33 and 28 per cent respectively.   
      
   Among the youngest voters, aged 18-34, May held an overwhelming lead, with 32   
   per cent saying they think she performed the best.   
      
   And when parsed by region, most on Vancouver Island thought May (whose riding   
   is Saanich-Gulf Islands) performed best at 32 per cent, despite voters' views   
   that only five per cent would vote for her if the election was held today.    
   Around the rest of the    
   province and in Metro Vancouver, most said Trudeau did the better job.   
      
   Yet it was Mulcair who most said would be the better prime minister.   
      
   Across B.C., 34 per cent chose the NDP leader, followed by Trudeau (27 per   
   cent), Harper (21 per cent) and May (eight per cent).   
      
   But when it came to who the respondent would vote for, it was Mulcair who won   
   both by region and by age groups.   
      
   In Metro, 42 per cent said they'd vote orange.  Strikingly, in rural B.C.,   
   traditionally Conservative territory, 32 per cent said they'd vote NDP,   
   compared to 26 per cent for Harper and 23 per cent for Trudeau.   
      
   And across all age groups except those over 65, more respondents said they'd   
   vote for Mulcair than for the other leaders. Only Harper earned high loyalty   
   among seniors.   
      
   The Mainstreet survey sampled residents by a mixture of landlines and   
   cellphones, with a margin of error of plus/minus 2.36 per cent, 19 times out   
   of 20.   
      
   http://www.vancouversun.com/cms/binary/11276503.jpg   
      
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