Plante, Coderre tied in race to become Montreal's next mayor: poll
The two top contenders for mayor of Montreal are in a statistical tie with less than two weeks left before voters cast their ballots in the municipal election.
According to a Léger-Le Journal-Montreal Gazette poll released Thursday, Mayor Valerie Plante and Ensemble Montreal's Denis Coderre are in a dead heat for the city's top job. Both are tied at 36 per cent for voting intentions.
Meanwhile, Mouvement Montreal leader Balarama Holness has the support of 12 per cent of voters, according to the poll.
Six per cent of respondents said they'd vote for a different candidate than the top three picks and nine per cent said they were undecided.
HOUSING, ENVIRONMENT TOP ISSUES FOR VOTERS: POLL
Rental costs and home ownership was listed as the top campaign issue, according to people who responded to the survey. Twenty-three per cent of respondents said housing was the number one issue for them.
Behind housing was the environment, with voters raising issues of protection of green spaces and single-use plastics regulation as thier second-most important election issue, followed by the economic revival of the downtown and commercial arteries.
Other key issues for voters, according to the poll, include gun control and funding for Montreal police, municipal taxes, public service, and homelessness.
Language is also set to become a hot button topic as the biggest parties share polarizing views on the English-French debate in the city. Plante said she is seeking to promote French in the metropolis, while Holness is seeking bilingual status for Montreal. Meanwhile, Coderre dismissed the idea of a referendum on language, calling it “too divisive.”
The poll showed that incumbent Mayor Plante's main opponent, Coderre, has the most support among anglophone voters. Of the 90 anglophones surveyed, he had 38 per cent of their support, while Plante had 28 per cent, the poll showed. Holness came in third with 12 per cent of the anglophone vote.
"Without Holness, Denis Coderre would win because he would seek the vote of non-French speakers," Jean-Marc Léger, president of the Léger firm, was quoted as saying in the Journal de Montreal.
The poll resembles others released in recent weeks that put Plante and Coderre on the path for a real showdown in the Nov. 7 election -- one that has been made all the more interesting with Holness entering the ring and chipping away at support for Ensemble Montreal.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
'Anything to win': Trudeau says as Poilievre defends meeting protesters
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is accusing Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre of welcoming 'the support of conspiracy theorists and extremists,' after the Conservative leader was photographed meeting with protesters, which his office has defended.
'My stomach dropped': Winnipeg man speaks out after being criminally harassed following single online date
A Winnipeg man said a single date gone wrong led to years of criminal harassment, false arrests, stress and depression.
What is changing about Canada's capital gains tax and how does it impact me?
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Pilot reported fire onboard plane carrying fuel, attempted to return to Fairbanks just before crash
One of the two pilots aboard an airplane carrying fuel reported there was a fire on the airplane shortly before it crashed and burned outside Fairbanks, killing both people on board, a federal aviation official said Wednesday.
'One of the single most terrifying things ever': Ontario couple among passengers on sinking tour boat in Dominican Republic
A Toronto couple are speaking out about their 'extremely dangerous' experience on board a sinking tour boat in the Dominican Republic last week.
7 surveillance videos linked to extortions of South Asian home builders in Edmonton released
The Edmonton Police Service has released a number of surveillance videos related to a series of extortion cases in the city now dubbed 'Project Gaslight.'
Ukraine uses long-range missiles secretly provided by U.S. to hit Russian-held areas, officials say
Ukraine for the first time has begun using long-range ballistic missiles provided secretly by the United States, bombing a Russian military airfield in Crimea last week and Russian forces in another occupied area overnight, American officials said Wednesday.