Polls showing unpopular candidates in the lead or close should energize the opposing voter block. We've saw this in 2017 with polling showing Nenshi way back and I think it energized the moderate/progressive base. He won by 7.5% when some polls had him down by 17% to Bill Smith.
Polling comes up during every election as a quantitative measure of which candidate is in the lead and who is most likely to get elected.
FULL COVERAGE: 2017 Calgary election
A poll released Wednesday afternoon shows Calgary mayoral candidate Naheed Nenshi ahead of fellow candidate Bill Smith by 15 points.
This information comes five days after a poll commissioned by a different group had Smith ahead of Nenshi by 13 points.
A third poll, released Oct. 7 showed Smith ahead of Nenshi by 17 points.
According to Mount Royal University political scientist Duane Bratt, some skepticism over polling results is probably wise.
“When you see (results) all across the board — when you see one poll with Nenshi up 17 points and another with Smith up 17 points — that tells us neither of them are accurate. Either one is dead-on and the other is completely accurate, or there’s something fundamentally flawed with all of them.”
https://globalnews.ca/news/3798338/c...ctory-results/