The Liberals and the Bloc Québécois are neck and neck in voting intention in Quebec, according to results of a poll of Quebec voters by Forum Research on Oct. 11, with the Conservatives a distant third. Voting Intention describes voters who say they are decided or leaning in a particular direction.
That the Liberals and the Bloc are tied in Quebec “could negatively affect Liberal chances for re-election,” said Forum Research president Lorne Bozinoff.
In a random sampling among 1,001 Quebec voters aged 18 or older the day after the Oct. 10 French-language debate, 33 per cent said they plan to vote Liberal in the Oct. 21 federal election; 31 per cent said they plan to vote for the Bloc.
Those most likely to say they’ll vote Liberal are 35 to 44, live in Montreal or northwestern Quebec and are anglophone; respondents most likely to say they’ll vote Bloc are 65 or older, living in suburbs of Montreal and francophone.
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Respondents named Bloc Québécois leader Yves-François Blanchet the winner of the debate. Twenty-eight per cent of those surveyed said he’d won and, among Quebecers aged 65 or older, the figure was 44 per cent.
Forum Research president Bozinoff said the fact that Blanchet was seen to have performed well in the debate “may explain some of the Bloc’s recent gains in Quebec.”
The most popular answer for who won the debate was “nobody,” but 18 per cent of respondents said it was Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau. Respondents most likely to declare Trudeau the victor won include those who speak neither French nor English at home, are anglophones and plan to vote Liberal.
The performance of Conservative Andrew Scheer in the debate was ranked in the poll as worst among the candidates by 25 per cent of respondents.
Thirty-five per cent of the Quebecers polled said that, regardless of party affiliation, Trudeau would make Canada’s best prime minister. This opinion was most prevalent among voters aged 35 to 44, women, Montrealers, anglophones and those who plan to vote Liberal.
By a wide margin, respondents said that Trudeau is best equipped to to represent Canada on the world stage.
The poll of Quebecers, conducted by telephone survey from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Oct. 10, is considered accurate to within three percentage points 19 times out of 20.
Copyright Postmedia Network Inc., 2019
