Polls
March 15, 2017 (Ottawa, ON) – A new Mainstreet/Postmedia poll of Edmontonians finds the Catholic school board registering lower approval than the public school board amid ongoing controversies. The Mainstreet/Postmedia poll has a margin of error of +/- 3.62 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
“It’s the generational numbers that should cause the most concern” said Quito Maggi, President of Mainstreet Research. “We’re consistently seeing on many of the questions we asked a clear divide in opinion between those over and under the age of 50. Strong approval, for instance, is in the single digits among younger respondents and in the mid-twenties for those over 50. It would appear that older Edmontonians are much more supportive of Catholic education.”
“While the public school board has net approval of +16 (approval – disapproval) the Catholic board is underwater with -17.”
“We asked Edmontonians if funding of Catholic education should continue. A majority, 51% say it should but that number drops to 41% among those 18-34 and 47% for those 35-49. Respondents over the age of 50 registered their support for ongoing funding of Catholic education in the mid-sixties.”
“Interestingly there is a lot of uncertainty about the possibility of the two boards sharing services and facilities such as busing and gymnasiums. If the boards were to share services it’s unclear who would benefit the most from the savings – or how exactly the facilities would accommodate extra students. Would there be two schools housed in the same physical building? There are a lot of questions about how this might function in practice that is likely contributing to the high undecided rate of 40%.”
“One thing Edmontonians are decided on is that they do not believe Catholic education should be offered in public schools. This would appear to be a bridge too far.”
“With the municipal election approaching we continue to track Mayor Don Iveson’s approval rating. This month he is up 4 percentage points to a 66% approval rate,” finished Maggi.
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Mainstreet – Edmonton March 2017 by Mainstreet on Scribd
