Lower Mainland Municipal Elections 2002

Vancouver, BC - As British Columbia gets closer to a November 16th municipal election, a new Ipsos-Reid/Vancouver Sun poll finds that Lower Mainland residents think it's most important that a mayor be "a good manager" (28%) or have "a vision for the future" (26%). The third place quality (chosen from a list of six qualities) is that a mayor should have "a willingness to make tough decisions" (20%). Less important attributes in a mayor are "an ability to achieve consensus" (10%), "having fresh ideas" (9%) and "political experience" (5%).

Younger residents tend to want a vision for the future while older residents tend to want a good manager. Specifically, the number one quality for younger residents (18-34 years) is having "a vision for the future" (32%), followed by being "a good manager" (22%) and having "a willingness to make tough decisions" (21%). In contrast, the number one quality in a mayor for older residents (55+ years) is being "a good manager" (36%), followed by "a vision for the future" (17%) and "a willingness to make tough decisions" (17%).

Within the City of Vancouver, voters have a preference for a mayor with a "vision for the future" (30%) over being "a good manager" (22%) and "a willingness to make tough decisions" (18%).

In other findings, Lower Mainland residents are split when it comes to the idea of municipal amalgamation. Forty-five percent say they would support their new Mayor and Council exploring the idea of amalgamating with one or more other municipalities. An identical number (45%) of residents oppose this idea. Within the City of Vancouver, residents are more likely to oppose their new Mayor and Council exploring the idea of amalgamation (42% support, 51% oppose).

City of Vancouver residents are split about whether it would be a good thing or a bad thing if the new Mayor of Vancouver ends up with his or her party also controlling a majority of the City Council seats. Forty-three percent think it would be a good thing and 41 percent think it would be a bad thing.

Finally, one-in-six (16%) residents of the Lower Mainland say they have personally met or talked to a municipal candidate during this election campaign. The rate is very similar within the City of Vancouver (14%).

These are the findings of a BC Ipsos-Reid poll conducted between October 30th and November 4th, 2002 among a representative cross-section of 500 residents of the Lower Mainland and an oversample of 200 residents of the City of Vancouver. In total, Ipsos-Reid interviewed 331 residents of the City of Vancouver. These data are statistically weighted to ensure the sample's regional, age and sex composition reflects that of the actual Lower Mainland and City of Vancouver populations according to 2001 Census data. With a Lower Mainland sample of 500, one can say with 95 percent certainty that the overall results are within 1774.4 percentage points of what they would have been had the entire adult Lower Mainland population been polled. With a City of Vancouver sample of 331, one can say with 95 percent certainty that the overall results are within 1775.4 percentage points of what they would have been had the entire adult Vancouver population been polled. The margin of error will be larger for other sub-groupings of the survey population.

For more information on this news release, please contact:
Kyle Braid
Vice President
Ipsos-Reid
(604) 257-3200