What's Driving who Canadians will Vote for on Election Day: Economy, Taxes and the Desire for Change `Absolutely Critical'

Toronto, ON - The economy, taxation and a desire for change are driving factors in this election that will disproportionately determine who Canadians will vote for on Election Day, according to a new Ipsos poll conducted on behalf of Global News.

Presented with a list of eleven possible issues, a majority (58%) of voters said that `the performance of Canada's economy' is `absolutely critical' in determining who they will vote for (down 2 points since the middle of September), making this far and away the dominant issue driving vote choice. In second position is `reducing the taxes that I pay' (44%, +6 points), followed closely by `the specific economic plan presented by each Party' (41%, unchanged) in third place. Rounding out the top five are `a desire to throw out the Harper government (36%, -1 point) and `a strong plan to reduce greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change' (33%, +1 point), something that hasn't been talked about an awful lot throughout the campaign.

Other issues deemed `absolutely critical' by fewer voters include: `the issue of religious and cultural freedom and values in Canada, such as the wearing of the niqab or other face-coverings during citizenship ceremonies' (31% nationally but 41% in Quebec and the 4th most important issue, no tracking available), `ethics issues related to the Senate and Mike Duffy trial' (28%, unchanged), `a national childcare program' (23%, +2 points), `the newly-announced Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal' (21%, no tracking), `continuing Canada's military mission to fight ISIL in the Middle East' (21%, -1 point) and the `Syrian refugee crisis' (19%, +3 points) which continues to register in last place among the issues tested.

Trudeau Captures Momentum on Key Metrics, Vision for Country as Harper Tumbles...

The marathon election campaign at one point had each of the major parties in first position, and issues morphed from ethics to economy, refugees to niqabs and religious freedom, with values emerging as a key theme heading into the final week.

Reinforcing the recent climb in the polls for the Liberals, four in ten (39%) voters say that Justin Trudeau is the leader whose values best represent their own, significantly ahead of the proportion who said that Stephen Harper (32%) or Thomas Mulcair (28%) best reflect their values. In fact, on five of the six leadership attributes tested, Justin Trudeau places first.

While Stephen Harper still leads Justin Trudeau as someone who is best to manage during tough economic times, perceptions of Justin Trudeau have improved on all six metrics - particularly as someone who has a vision voters can support - while perceptions of Stephen Harper have worsened on all.

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These are some of the findings of an Ipsos poll conducted between October 9 and 13, 2015 on behalf of Global News. For this survey, a sample of 1,349 Canadians eligible to vote was interviewed online via the Ipsos I-Say Panel (comprising ~150,000 panelists) and non-panel sources (river sampling). Given Ipsos' use of river sampling and a router to match respondents who may not qualify for other surveys with one they do qualify for (such as this poll), it is not possible to identify the number of respondents invited to participate in the survey, or a traditional measure of response rate. Weighting by region, age, gender and political variables was employed to balance demographics to ensure that the sample's composition reflects that of the adult population according to Census data and to provide results intended to approximate the sample universe. The precision of Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the poll is accurate to within +/ - 3.0 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, had all eligible voters been polled. The credibility interval will be wider among subsets of the population. All sample surveys and polls may be subject to other sources of error, including, but not limited to coverage error, and measurement error.

For more information on this news release, please contact:

John Wright, CAPOR
Senior Vice President
Ipsos Public Affairs
(416) 324-2002
[email protected]

About Ipsos in Canada

Ipsos is Canada's market intelligence leader, the country's leading provider of public opinion research, and research partner for loyalty and forecasting and modelling insights. With operations in eight cities, Ipsos employs more than 600 research professionals and support staff in Canada. The company has the biggest network of telephone call centres in the country, as well as the largest pre-recruited household and online panels. Ipsos' marketing research and public affairs practices offer the premier suite of research vehicles in Canada, all of which provide clients with actionable and relevant information. Staffed with seasoned research consultants with extensive industry-specific backgrounds, Ipsos offers syndicated information or custom solutions across key sectors of the Canadian economy, including consumer packaged goods, financial services, automotive, retail, and technology & telecommunications. Ipsos is an Ipsos company, a leading global survey-based market research group.

To learn more, please visit www.ipsos.ca.

About Ipsos

Ipsos is an independent market research company controlled and managed by research professionals. Founded in France in 1975, Ipsos has grown into a worldwide research group with a strong presence in all key markets. Ipsos ranks third in the global research industry.

With offices in 86 countries, Ipsos delivers insightful expertise across six research specializations: advertising, customer loyalty, marketing, media, public affairs research, and survey management.

Ipsos researchers assess market potential and interpret market trends. They develop and build brands. They help clients build long-term relationships with their customers. They test advertising and study audience responses to various media and they measure public opinion around the globe.

Ipsos has been listed on the Paris Stock Exchange since 1999 and generated global revenues of e1,669.5 ($2,218.4 million) in 2014.

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