Left-leaning voters prefer Charest, Brown

OTTAWA — New polling suggests Liberal and NDP voters think Jean Charest or Patrick Brown would make the best leader of the Conservative party.

The data released by the research firm Leger is based on an online survey it did of 1,528 Canadian adults last weekend using computer-assisted web interviewing technology. It cannot be assigned a margin of error because internet-based polls are not considered random samples.

The survey asked respondents which of the six candidates in the running they believe would make the best leader of the party, which will unveil its new leader Sept. 10.

Leger executive vice-president Christian Bourque says one of the issues they come across when they poll Canadians about a party leadership race is that roughly onethird appear indifferent.

The data suggests 58% of respondents answered they didn’t know or picked none of the above when questioned on which candidate would make the best Conservative leader.

When it came to Conservative voters, the polling suggests 23% of respondents said they didn’t know and only eight per cent selected none of the above.

Of Tory voters who responded to the survey, data suggests 44% of them believe Pierre Poilievre, the longtime Ottawa-area MP known for his attacks on the government and Bank of Canada over inflation, would make the best party leader.

Charest, Quebec’s former premier, came in a distant second at 14% among Conservative voters, according to the survey’s findings, while the four other remaining candidates ranked much lower.