Poll Results for Next Mayor of CBRM (July 2018)

goCapeBreton.com recently conducted polls about potential candidates for CBRM Mayor. The results are below.

Why conduct these polls?

goCapeBreton.com has been occasionally doing polls on our website and social media for a long time. We recently did polls about the healthcare changes announced by the Provincial government and about Cape Breton having its own political party.

With CBRM Mayor Clarke pursuing the leadership of the NS Conservative Party, there is the possibility that an election could be called sooner than the next municipal election scheduled for October 2020. Should Mayor Clarke resign his position, an election could be held within a few weeks and no later than 15 weeks of resignation. For more details, see What Happens When a Mayor Resigns

goCapeBreton.com has a social mission to improve our community. We believe that encouraging discussion about leadership is helpful. And, the sooner such a discussion happens, the more people that might be motivated to consider how they can participate in the democratic process.

Who sponsored these polls?

No one sponsored these polls. They were created and run by goCapeBreton.com, and are not affiliated with any person or organization. For clarity, these polls are not affiliated with the New Dawn polls or the Corporate Research Associates polls.

How were candidates selected?

Candidates were selected based on one or all of these three criteria:

They have been Mayor or run for Mayor previously
They are local politicians
There are people encouraging them to run for Mayor

We have no knowledge of each person’s actual intent to run for Mayor. Being an official candidate for Mayor does not happen until an election is called.

Why is my preferred candidate not included in the poll?

Our first polls only included candidates who are already well known and have public profiles in politics.

If you know someone who is making strong contributions to our community and may have the leadership potential to run for Mayor, let us know in the comments below. It’s great to recognize good people doing good things, and maybe we will even consider running a poll with them included.

How were the polls conducted?

goCapeBreton.com has significant reach and engagement with Cape Bretoners living away and at home through our website, magazine, and social media.

Polls were posted on Facebook using the Facebook polling feature. Facebook polls only allow 2 choices, so instead of having one poll with all options, we posted multiple polls where each poll had a head-to-head matchup. We think this provides additional depth to the results.

How accurate are the poll results?

We do not make any specific claims about accuracy. You can see how many people voted and the results below to make your own determination. We do think the poll results and the comments left by members of the community hold significant value.

For critics of social media data gathering, we would point out that telephone polls tend to be viewed as inconvenient interruptions with which most people avoid participating. Those who do participate may not be fully representative of average voters, thereby skewing the results. Facebook polls are more actively voluntary, and less anonymous, thereby providing valuable results, despite an unregulated sample size profile, and regardless of specific accuracy.

Poll Results

Note that some of the polls below may still be active as of the date of this post.