The most popular people in province? The poll knows ...
THE RIDE STUFF Cyclists race on Saturday in the Tour de Lumsden, an annual fundraiser for Regina Palliative Care Inc., near Craven.
The two most popular Saskatchewan people don’t even live in the province.
According to a new Mainstreet Research poll, former Roughriders quarterback Darian Durant and Corner Gas star Brent Butt are the province’s most popular people.
Of course, Durant now plays for the Montreal Alouettes and Butt has moved on to other projects outside of Dog River.
Mainstreet polled 1,000 Saskatchewan adults from Aug. 16 - 22 through live interviews using land line and cell lines.
Durant’s net score — the per cent of people with a favourable opinion minus the per cent of an unfavourable opinion — was 51 per cent. His score counts as a win over the current Roughrider head coach and general manager Chris Jones, largely responsible for Durant’s departure. He scored a negative seven per cent rating.
The former championship winning quarterback was followed closely by Butt (48 per cent).
“They have each in their own way really become iconic for the province,” said David Valentin, executive vice-president of Mainstreet Research, adding the success of Corner Gas and Durant’s 2013 Grey Cup win built up a “reservoir of good will” for them.
As the province waits to see who its next premier is going to be, perhaps the Saskatchewan Party should be courting either of those two to return and take a stab at politics. Failing that, they could look to Kevin Glenn — the current quarterback for the Roughriders — as an option. He had a net score of 35 per cent, making him the third most popular and reaffirming the passion of Rider nation.
Of course, as Valentin notes, “All three of those people have nothing to do with politics.”
When it does come to legislators, Regina-Wascana Liberal MP and Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale holds the crown as most popular. The longtime politician ranked in a net score of 28 per cent. Valentin points to Goodale being “front and centre” on important federal files, such as immigration, as one reason why his popularity remains strong.
And while outgoing premier Brad Wall has long been known as one of the country’s most lovable politicians, it is actually his son winning in popularity. Singersongwriter Colter Wall scored 23 per cent — well ahead of his father’s negative two per cent.
But the younger Wall has, so far, steered well clear of provincial politics — so the governing Sask. Party can likely count him out as the next premier, too.
Instead they’ll have to make do with the current list of announced or expected-to-announce candidates vying for the party leadership. And that doesn’t bode well, considering how disliked or unrecognizable the surveyed names from that list were.
Tina Beaudry-Mellor, who served as the province’s Social Services Minister, had a negative four per cent score, while Finance Minister Kevin Doherty had a minus five per cent score.
For both, they’re lack of favourability is somewhat mollified by the high number of respondents who said they have no clear opinion of them.
Valentin says people may know who Beaudry-Mellor and Doherty are, but that they have “no idea what to actually think of them” because of their close ties to Premier Wall. In essence, they are seen as people behind Wall doing what Wall says.
Others who have announced or are expected to — Jeremy Harrison, Gord Wyant, Ken Cheveldayoff — were not included in the survey.
Conservative MP and one-time federal conservative party leadership hopeful Brad Trost, who has indicated an interest in becoming the province’s next premier, was the least popular of all 22 people on the list, with a negative 22 per cent.
The other end of the political spectrum looks somewhat more favourable. The opposition NDP is hunting for its next leader, but can take a bit of comfort in knowing the woman holding the job in the interim, Nicole Sarauer, has a nine per cent net score. She is like many politicians not named Brad Wall, though, in that 77 per cent of people had no clear opinion of her (46 per cent of people also said they were not familiar with her).
Saskatoon-Meewassin MLA and NDP leadership hopeful Ryan Meili had a 13 per cent score, with 49 per cent of people having no clear opinion of him. His only opponent in the race thus far, Regina-Rosemont MLA Trent Wotherspoon is liked less (six per cent net score), with 48 per cent having no clear opinion.
Neither have the same popularity as Saskatoon’s left-leaning mayor, Charlie Clark. He had a 17 per cent net score, although 66 per cent of people had no clear opinion of him. Still, his favourability scores a win over Regina in the battle of the province’s big cities: Queen City Mayor Michael Fougere had a four per cent net score, with 70 per cent of people having no clear opinion.
The list also included other names, such as Regina-born actress Tatiana Maslany (10 per cent net score) and Saskatchewan MP / Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer (minus two per cent).
Mainstreet’s survey’s margin of error is plus/minus 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.