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Early edge to Ballem in PC race



The results of a Corporate Research Associates poll conducted exclusively for The Guardian Guardian illustration by Paul Pettipas

The results of a Corporate Research Associates poll conducted exclusively for The Guardian

Published on September 5th, 2010
Published on September 5th, 2010
Wayne Thibodeau RSS Feed

Exclusive Guardian poll finds race for PC leadership dominated by Jamie Ballem, Olive Crane

Topics :
Progressive Conservative Party , Corporate Research Associates , The Guardian , Prince , Kings , Queens

 

Jamie Ballem may have entered the race for the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party late, but he's made up for lost time, according to a Corporate Research Associates poll conducted exclusively for The Guardian.

Pat Binns' former environment minister has a modest six-point lead going into the Oct. 2 leadership convention which will be held at the University of Prince Edward Island.

When Islanders were asked who they thought would be the best person to lead the party, Ballem was the choice of 26 per cent of Islanders.

He's followed closely behind by former interim leader Olive Crane, who enjoys the support of 20 per cent of Islanders.

The three other candidates are running well behind the two front-runners.

Former Borden-Carleton police chief Jamie Fox and former Georgetown mayor Peter Llewellyn both have the support of six per cent of Islanders. Former PC MLA Fred McCardle is in last place with two per cent support.

"It looks like Mr. Ballem has a real edge," - Don Mills, president of Corporate Research Associates

Five per cent of those polled said they don't want any of the above leading the Progressive Conservative Party, while 34 per cent remain undecided.

Don Mills, president of Corporate Research Associates, says the two best-known candidates received the most support.

"It looks like Mr. Ballem has a real edge," Mills told The Guardian.

"Ballem has a lot of support in Queens County. He particularly has a lot of support among what I like to refer to as the family households. That's kind of interesting. He also has a lot of support among the highest income households. Otherwise his support is reasonably well spread."

 

 

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Comments

  • Username
    country boy
    - September 7th, 2010 at 20:27:26

    Peter, the province you describe is not the province that I know. Yes, we have challenges like everyone else. Some of these challenges could be met head on with proper political decisions but we the voters have to share in the blame. Everyone wants a hospital in their corner of the province and they will not vote for anyone who has the courage to tell us that we must change. If both main parties would take a stand and say enough is enough we would all be winners. In my view, I would vote for the party that promises two hospitals and I do live in the country. The poor suffer no matter where they live. The rest of your assertions, well sometimes you have to look inward to see where the problems lie...

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  • Username
    Peter
    - September 7th, 2010 at 15:09:14

    #1 GEORGE-If Islanders give This Liberal government a 2nd term, their not too bright. It's really a shame that Islander's didn't have a third political party to chose from. #2-COUNTRY BOY- You mention the lack Nurses & Doctors. A provinces government & it's courts - (they Are intertwined), All including how it treats it's citizens is A deciding factor in these Professionals decision as where they will move to, to practice Medicine. Money is Not always number 1 in their decisions. Unfortunatly, PEI has a failing grade in both government & it's justice system, it's courts. What professional is going to move their family to a province literally drowning in illegal drugs? Where it's courts allow men, violent against women-Walk? Where it's government contributes to it's People's poor health by not providing enough to it's poor and it's disabled, it's seniors to access the neccessities of Life-their Medications-Special Needs or even enough to get to a hospital-a doctor? Doctors & Nurses try to save lives-not sit back unable to do anything while they watch people's health needlessly decline.

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  • Username
    MIltonSteed
    - September 7th, 2010 at 11:05:27

    First of all, Guardian, your new site format and your way of managing it make the site diffcult for submititng and reading comments esp. on your political stories. Formerly a story went up when it was published in print format and we had a chance to make comment for a period of time. Now a story may or may not go up and if and when it does it can suddenly disappear according to some randon process. I had to use the search fucntion to find this story. I do not understand what you are doing, Guardian, but you should be opting for transparency, not random manipulation. I have been puzzled abouth this so called PC leadership poll for the last several days. I do not recall CRA doing a poll for past provincial party leaderships, the Liberal one that picked Ghiz or the PC one that selected Binns before that. Why have you done htis poll? It is extremely manipulative, asking many people who may be Ghiz supporters what their views may be on the PC convention, and that reporting it as some kind of indication of how the PC race is going. The Guardian, along with the Graphic and CBC, have led a pro-Ballem campaign for weeks now. Nobody asked Ballem about PNP nor have we been told anything about his consultancy work over the last three years. Has Ballem had any successes in renewable energy development? What has been up to? What has been the source of his income? Did he receive PNP payments? We have seem Crane in action and she had to endure the behind the scenes of old style Tories, PNP cobe rup Liberals and media who seem to want to cover up abuses such as the PNP scandal, for soem mysterious reason. And you give Ballem a free ride? C'mon. None of you show any respect for the unusual courage that Crane is demonstrating. It is shameful. For example, Crane called for a public inquiry on PNP almost 2 years ago. You did an editorial poo poing the inquiry 18 months ago and have said nothing since. Pretty shameful, really. Will you ask Ballem his views on a public inquiry for PNP? You are unfair to Olive Crane but her courage has further motivated those of us who know she is a decent person who will finally clean up PEI government, after decades of patronage, abuse and waste esp, in the area of economic development. Despite bad health I will be there for Crane in October, my first PC meeting since Angus MacLean was Premier. You can write and manipulate for Ballem all you like but the determined and the just will prevail in October- against Ballem and in October 2011- against Ghiz. You can try to influence the result of the PC convention but you cannot completely contorl it. There are to many of us with the public interest in mind to let you do this to us. Again.

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  • Username
    Old Tory
    - September 6th, 2010 at 18:06:38

    Mark, your math is some what embarrassing. No wonder our school system is ranked last.

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    • Username
      English Professor
      - September 6th, 2010 at 18:29:33

      And so is your english.

  • Username
    Donnie D.
    - September 6th, 2010 at 16:59:21

    I think Crane would have the best chance of winning against the Liberals in the next election. She would do much better with the swing vote than Ballem. Ballem is tied too much to the former government. They need some one with experience from former gov't, but not someone who was involved in their failed ventures. That is Crane. If they are smart, they will put Crane in. She could attract better peolpe to run.

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  • Username
    george
    - September 6th, 2010 at 16:59:17

    The Conservatives don't have a strong candidate to run in the next election, no matter who wins for the Tories, on Oct 2, 2010. The Liberals may not be liked due to the infamous PNP scandal, the continuous increasing deficit and the fact that they line other back bencher and liberal party supporters with more profit. (no different then any other party) The polls say they are strong. It is typical of Islanders to vote the party in for two terms, liberals will be in again. We may not want the liberals in for another 4 years but there is not much competition.....

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  • Username
    scott
    - September 6th, 2010 at 16:58:29

    I agree completely with country boy. It is unreal that a province the size of PEI has as many hospitals as it does. Which party will stand up and make the tough, but correct choice , and close all but summerside and charlottetown? Then redirect funding to those 2 places. the time has come.

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  • Username
    Mark
    - September 6th, 2010 at 10:03:47

    Sorry New Tory. If Ballem holds a6 % lead and the error is 5.6 then he could be leading by 18 points as his error brings him to 31% and the error for olive bring her back to 14 % using your analogy that the error would be negative. This was over before it started. Ballem was late registering for the vote to be sure he knew who the other candidates were.

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  • Username
    Spudgal
    - September 6th, 2010 at 08:59:00

    Surely the following is a misprint? Pat Binns'? (Pat Binns' former environment minister has a modest six-point lead going into the Oct. 2 leadership convention which will be held at the University of Prince Edward Island.) It's the first time I've seen the president of Corporate Research Associates make a public statement about a poll regarding a candidate having a real edge and single out the Candidate and detail his support from specific areas!

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  • Username
    darcy mill
    - September 6th, 2010 at 08:58:16

    Jamie Ballem is an average candidate at best, stepping up for a job no one thats any good wants, reminds me of Stéphane Dion, if Ballem dose get in i could see the same thing happening to him ending up losing seats in the next election.

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  • Username
    Westerner
    - September 6th, 2010 at 08:57:25

    If anyone thinks that Jamie Fox has as much as support as Olive Crane in Western PEI, they are sadly mistaken. We is the west also still remember Ballem's days on the Potato Comission/Board and we are still not happy.

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  • Username
    country boy
    - September 6th, 2010 at 08:57:14

    The most important question for these candidates to answer is what actions will you take to fix our health care situation on PEI. Will you close all hospitals except Summerside and Charlottetown? There aren't enough doctors and nurses to staff all of our hospitals and harsh actions are required for the benefit of all of us. Not only are there not enough doctors, others don't want to come here because of the pressures they face due to the poor political decisions that are made. Where to these candidates stand on this issue?

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  • Username
    New Tory
    - September 5th, 2010 at 20:55:09

    Kind of a misleading headline. Ballem is ahead by 6% and the margin of error is + or - 5.6 %. Its almost a tie really. Plus the undecided is way higher than all candidates. The pollster should know better.

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  • Username
    Jimbo Jones
    - September 5th, 2010 at 18:24:46

    I am not a Tory (or a Liberal). I do, however, like Jamie Ballem. He's not perfect, and I wasn't a fan of the Tories when they decided to draw their own electoral map, but Ballem is a good guy. He did a lot for wind energy on PEI and has some vision for the future. The Tories could do a lot worse.

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  • Username
    nitpicker
    - September 5th, 2010 at 16:56:11

    Nothing against Mr. Ballem, he may very well be the best qualified candidate. But unfortunately, I can't help but wonder if his lead is based on the fact that, as a former cabinet minister, his lead in this early poll is because he is the most 'known' candidate. What do these candidates stand for? What would they do as leader if elected to that position?

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