Health care, an NDP-friendly issue, now top concern for Calgarians: poll
CBC
EDITOR'S NOTE: CBC News commissioned this public opinion research in late March, roughly two months before Albertans vote in the next election on May 29.
As with all polls, this one is a snapshot in time.
This analysis is one in a series of articles to come out of this research.
Nearly half of all Calgarians say health care is one of the top issues they're facing right now — and most people trust the NDP to be better managers of the system, a new poll suggests.
However, economic issues follow closely behind as top concerns, and that's area in which the governing United Conservative Party is perceived to have the edge.
A poll of 1,000 people in Calgary — the battleground city where both main parties will focus their election campaigns — suggests a close tie between what issues they value and what party they choose.
Pollster Janet Brown, however, says what's making this election interesting is the group of voters in the middle, concerned about both social and economic issues.
"This election is probably going to come down to those people," Brown said.
Given how pivotal the election's results in Alberta's largest city will be in determining the winner, CBC News commissioned Janet Brown Opinion Research to conduct this special poll of Calgarians only.
During the 2019 campaign, the UCP leader at the time, Jason Kenney, spoke behind a placard that laid out his party's idea of which issues mattered: jobs, economy, pipelines.
Those were the issues that dominated the minds of Albertans. In a Janet Brown poll the year before the election, 42 per cent of respondents cited the oil-and-gas economy's health as a concern, making it the voters' most pressing issue.
Kenney's campaign messaging paid off. His UCP unseated Rachel Notley's governing party and won nearly all seats in Calgary.
But things have changed.
"In 2019, it seemed to be strictly economic things that were on people's minds. In this election, it's a mix of both social and economic," Brown said.
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