Half of Sault would vote Conservative in next federal election: poll

If a federal election was held today, more than half of Sault voters (53 per cent) would cast their ballot for the Conservative candidate, according to a new poll conducted by Village Media.

The Liberals would receive 32 per cent of local votes, the poll found, followed by the NDP (10 per cent) and the People’s Party of Canada (4 per cent). The Green Party would receive the fewest votes, with less than 1 per cent.

The poll was conducted over the weekend, following Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Nov. 10 visit to Sault Ste. Marie. A total of 461 people have responded so far, including 154 who reside in our community. 

Of the local respondents, here is the full breakdown:

• Conservative: 81
• Liberal: 50
• NDP: 16
• People’s Party: 6
• Green: 1

Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre visited Sault Ste. Marie in July, trumpeting his party’s message of lower taxes, smaller government and “common sense” solutions.

“The reaction I’m getting here is that people want to back up my plans,” Poilievre told SooToday during his summer visit. “They know what’s going on because they’re living through it. It doesn't matter what spin the national media puts on for Trudeau. The reaction I’m getting is they want common sense back. This was a great country and they just want that back.”

While in the Sault last week, Trudeau sat down for a one-on-one interview with Village Media’s editor-in-chief, Michael Friscolanti. Asked about the growing support for Poilievre across northern Ontario, the Prime Minister said he understands why “people are frustrated right now at everything.”

“I suggest people take a look at Pierre Poilievre carefully and honestly ask yourself whether he’s trying to solve the challenges he’s laying out or whether he’s just trying to amplify the challenges that are being laid out,” Trudeau said. “Everyone wants the bumper sticker to be right, but it takes more than a seven second TikTok to solve really big challenges, and I strongly suspect — because I’ve watched Pierre Poilievre in his role as a professional politician for decades now — he's very good at the quick, easy soundbites. He's not so good at the real answers that are going to make a difference.”

Results are based on an online study of adult Village Media readers that are located in Sault Ste. Marie. The margin of error, which measures sample variability, is +/- 100%, 19 times out of 20. Village Media uses a variety of techniques to capture data, detect and prevent fraudulent votes, detect and prevent robots, and filter out non-local and duplicate votes.