Former Progressive Conservative leader Patrick Brown has closed the gap on Linda Jeffrey in the Brampton mayoral race and now has a slight lead over the incumbent with two days until the election, a new poll has found.
The Mainstreet Research survey of 517 adult Brampton residents has found that Brown has the support of 43.9 per cent of decided respondents compared to 39.3 per cent for Jeffrey. With a margin of error of 4.29 per cent, the result means that Brown has a very tenuous lead as he embarks on the final weekend of the campaign.
The poll also found that nearly one in five voters (17.4 per cent) remain undecided, suggesting that the race is still very much up in the air.
“Brown has the advantage coming into the final weekend,” Mainstreet Research President and CEO Quito Maggi said in a press release. “But his lead is barely outside the margin of error and will still need to have a strong get-out-the-vote effort to see himself over the line on Monday.”
Brown’s support tended to be stronger among men (46.6) and middle aged residents while Jeffrey did better among women (43.8 per cent) and those 65 years of age or older.
The release of the poll comes one day after the release of a Forum Research survey suggesting that Brown and Jeffrey are in a statistical tie.
Brown filed his paperwork to run in the Brampton mayoral race on the last day for registration, following Premier Doug Ford’s decision to cancel the Peel Regional chair election, which he had been a candidate in.
He has trailed Jeffrey from the get-go but polls had indicated that he had begun to cut into her lead.
The Mainstreet Research and Forum Research polls are the first to be conducted in the Brampton mayoral race since former premier Bill Davis endorsed Brown on Oct. 9.
