Poll shows roads, crime top concerns for Saskatoon city voters

A new Mainstreet/Postmedia poll shows the condition of Saskatoon's roads continues to be the main concern for voters in this year's municipal election.

The poll shows 23 per cent of people thinkroads are the city's top issuein this year's election campaign. Crime followed at second place with 16 per cent, followed by taxes at 11 per cent.

"We found in earlier polling that many don't see real improvement happening to Saskatoon's roads and feel they are in particularly bad shape," said David Valentin, executive vice-president of Mainstreet Research. "Now, we're seeing that roads are a high priority for voters. Certainly it's something candidates will want to be talking about."

The poll also asked about strategic voting. According to the poll, 20 per cent of voters would consider voting for a candidate who might be able to win, versus someone who represents their values.

"The results are not positive for Don Atchison - who is generally regarded as the candidate who strategic voting would be employed against," said Valentin. "While only 20 per cent of voters say they want to vote strategically, these voters are overwhelmingly older. 37 per cent of seniors say they want to vote strategically and if they plan to vote strategically to stop Don Atchison's re-election, that could have a big effect."

Voters were also asked about the quality of city services. 52 per cent of those polled ranked city services as either good or very good. However, a large section of voters said the city wasn't getting good value for its tax dollars, at 37 per cent.

Mainstreet surveyed a random sample of 802 Saskatoon residents by Smart IVR on September 13, 2016. A mixture of landlines and cell phones were surveyed. The margin of error: +/- 3.46%, 19 times out of 20. Results were weighed by age and gender based on the 2011 Canadian Census.