Veteran city councilor Catherine McKenney has a solid lead in the race for Ottawa mayor, according to a Mainstreet poll.
McKenney has 34 percent support among all voters, well ahead of his nearest rival Mark Sutcliffe on 14 percent. Thirty-eight percent were undecided.
The McKenney area of downtown Centertown was affected by the convoy occupation last winter; they were a prominent voice supporting earlier and stronger action to abolish it.
Outgoing Mayor Jim Watson announced he would not seek re-election before the protests.
McKenney’s support is strongest among university graduates.
Sixty-one percent of respondents said they were somewhat or very dissatisfied with local government in Ottawa.
Those surveyed said creating affordable housing was the most important issue facing the community. Seventy-eight percent said housing was unaffordable; 93 percent of McKenney’s supporters called housing unaffordable.
Seventy percent, however, said their own neighborhoods had as much housing as they could reasonably support.
A strong majority, 71 percent, opposed the strong mayoral system recently proposed by Ontario Premier Doug Ford.
Read more: Horwath looks to have strong early lead in Hamilton mayoral race: poll
This Mainstreet Research survey was conducted on July 22nd and 23rd. A sample of 663 people was interviewed via automated telephone interviews. The poll is within ±3.8 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
Mainstreet Research is a private owner of iPolitics and QP Briefing.
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