New poll suggests Milobar primed to win Kamloops-North Thompson

Apr 28, 2017 | 10:00 AM

KAMLOOPS — Polling results released by the Kamloops Voters Society today suggest Kamloops-North Thompson will elect BC Liberal Peter Milobar on May 9.

KVS commissioned Vancouver-based Justason Market Intelligence (JMI) to conduct the telephone survey, which took place between April 21 and 24.

It found, of 200 eligible voters surveyed, 47 per cent of decided voters expressed a preference for Milobar.

31 per cent put their support behind Barb Nederpel of the BC NDP, with another 15 per cent supporting Dan Hines of the Green Party.

The survey results are considered accurate within +/- 6.9 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

JMI also asked respondents about their top election issues, and found the number one priority to be the lack of family physicians.

39 per cent of respondents identified the lack of doctors as their top priority, followed by jobs and the economy at 31 per cent.

Spokesman Leslie Lax says the Kamloops Voters Society hopes the information will encourage more people to cast ballots on or before May 9.

“We believe that information around the election and the kind of information the poll provides is just another talking point for people to think about why they would want to vote in the election, and for them to actually get out and vote,” said Lax.

“Things can change. Our biggest hope is that the change is, more people get out and vote. The whole purpose of this is to raise interest, raise the discussion, and to help people go out and vote, however they choose to vote.”

Lax adds KVS will not be polling Kamloops-South Thompson voters.

He says that decision was financial.

“We had to choose between the ridings. Historically, certainly for the last two elections, we saw that the turnout in Kamloops-North Thompson was lower than in Kamloops-South Thompson, and that’s the reason we chose that particular riding.”

Advanced voting begins April 29.