Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan won’t be cruising to victory this time, a new poll suggest.
The incumbent Burnaby Citizens Association politician is in a virtual dead heat with independent candidate Mike Hurley, according to a poll from zinc tank, Justason Market Intelligence and Dufferin research and commissioned by the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF).
The poll gives Corrigan a slight edge, with 43 per cent support over Hurley, with 42 per cent, among committed voters.
But the figures should perhaps be taken with a grain of salt, as Hurley has been the past president of IAFF’s burnaby local and currently serves as the vice president of its sixth district.
Zinc tank president and CEO Brian F. Singh said the poll shows an “appetite for change” in Burnaby.
“This close race is favourable for first-time mayoral candidate Hurley when you get behind the traditional horse-race numbers,” he said in a press release. “Corrigan remains well-regarded in his performance in his role of mayor.”
Hurley is much more popular among those who know who he is, compared to Corrigan, the poll found.
The percentage of people who think of Hurley favourably minus those who think of him unfavourably gave Hurley a score of 48, compared to Corrigan’s 4.
“It appears that as voters get know Hurley, in his first run for the top job at City Hall, voters consider him more favourably relative to the incumbent,” Singh said.
But Corrigan (71 per cent) still has considerably more name recognition than Hurley (44 per cent).
“With just over two weeks to go, this is poised to be an interesting election,” Singh said.
The poll surveyed 645 Burnaby residents both online and over the phone.
The poll did not report a margin of error but "a pure unweighted probability sample of 645 reports margin of error at ±3.85 percentage points most (95 per cent) of the time," the press release said.
In 2014, Corrigan won his fifth term as mayor with 67.8 per cent of the vote over the second place finisher, Daren Hancott who received only 21.3 per cent support.
In July, Corrigan told the NOW he’s “never nervous about the race.”
