2 days Ago
Three federal election candidates vying to represent a northeast Edmonton riding say that in doorstep conversations, residents are bringing up concerns about affordability, the cost of living, health care and the Canada-U.S. trade war.
NDP candidate Lesley Thompson, Liberal candidate Blair-Marie Coles and People's Party of Canada candidate Robert Bard all said affordability has been a common concern among voters in Edmonton Manning, a riding that has been held by Conservative Ziad Aboultaif since 2015. "Everyday families, especially here in Edmonton Manning, are just trying to figure out how to pay their bills and how to feed their families and when prices go up, that's making life unaffordable and hard to get by," said Thompson, who has worn out three pairs of shoes since she began knocking on doors in the summer. CBC News asked all four candidates to participate in interviews about their conversations with riding residents.
All made themselves available except Aboultaif, the incumbent. Aboultaif, who won 41 per cent of the votes in the 2021 election, has been posting on social media about speaking with riding residents. He has said on social media that the community is "ready to put Canada first for a change" and "ready for hope and to recover what was wasted in the lost Liberal decade.
" The NDP came in second in the riding during the 2021 election, winning 31 per cent of votes, followed by the Liberals (21 per cent) and the PPC (seven per cent). Ziad Aboultaif is the Conservative incumbent in Edmonton Manning. (Jay Rosove/CBC) Candidates also told CBC News that their conversations about affordability and the cost of living touched on other issues, including housing, immigration and health care.
Bard, who said his biggest goal is improving upon his party's performance in the riding during previous elections, said housing costs have come up during his discussions with voters about the cost of living. The PPC is proposing a moratorium on new permanent residents until the housing crisis has cooled down. "The PPC is not against immigration at all — we just need it so that it's controlled, so that when immigrants come in, we can provide the services they need," Bard said.
PPC candidate Robert Bard knocks on a door in northeast Edmonton's Belmont neighbourhood. (Jay Rosove/CBC) Thompson said the voters she's talking to are bringing up health care most often — specifically protecting Canada's public health-care system. By expanding pharmacare, she said, the NDP would make it easier for Canadians to afford medications and other essentials.
Liberal candidate Blair-Marie Coles, who works full-time and has been door-knocking four to six times a week since the start of the election campaign, said voters are bringing up many issues, from artificial intelligence to the trade war and state of the economy. She said a lot of people in the riding work in the trades and are still recovering from the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. "So to get hit with this again, they're really nervous about how it's going to impact their livelihood," she said.
Coles said one theme that has come up again and again in conversations is a desire for hope. "They're looking for someone who has a plan, that's going to keep them safe and get them through this, and I think a lot of people are looking at (Liberal Leader) Mark Carney and seeing somebody who can provide that hope, but also give the plan to get us there," she said. Liberal candidate Blair-Marie Coles knocking on doors in the Cy Becker neighbourhood.
(Madeleine Cummings/CBC) Aboultaif also used the word hope in a recent social media post about Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre's visit and rally attended by thousands of people in Nisku, south of Edmonton. "This is what hope looks like," he said in the post. Affordability, Trump are top issues: pollster Eddie Sheppard, vice-president, insights, at the polling and market research company Abacus Data, told CBC News that two topics are consistently resonating the most with Canadians during the election campaign: affordability and U.
S. President Donald Trump. He said the cost of living, affordability, housing and health care were the top four issues for Canadians for months, but things shifted after Trump took office.
When the company surveyed 2,000 Canadian adults between March 20 and 25, 34 per cent said the cost of living will have the biggest influence on their vote and 19 per cent said the most influential issue would be Trump's impact on Canada. Ten per cent of respondents selected health care and even fewer chose jobs, taxes, housing or climate change. People were invited at random to complete the survey from a set of partner panels.
The margin of error for a comparable probability-based random sample of the same size is +/- 2.19 per cent, 19 times out of 20. Sheppard said respondents listing affordability as one of their top issues were more likely to lean Conservative while those more concerned about Trump were more likely to lean Liberal.
Canada Votes 2025: How to follow the federal leaders' debates Environmental issues taking a backseat this election, Vote Compass data shows A more recent survey from the same company asked 1,800 Canadian adults between April 7 and 10 to choose up to five issues that should be discussed in the federal election debates. A random sample of people were invited to complete that survey from a set of partner panels and the margin of error for a comparable probability-based random sample of the same size is +/- 2.3 per cent, 19 times out of 20.
How Canada should deal with Trump and his administration was the most commonly chosen issue (selected by 68 per cent of respondents), followed by housing affordability (65 per cent), health care and access to services (64 per cent), and jobs and the economy (63 per cent). Recent data from Vote Compass suggests Canada-U.S.
relations, economy/finance and cost of living/affordability were Canadian voters' top three issues. A similar split was observed between Liberal and Conservative voters, with the former especially concerned about relations with the U.S.
and the latter most concerned about the economy. While Sheppard doesn't expect the party leaders to stray from focusing on Trump and affordability, he said debates could bring more attention to overlooked issues, influencing undecided voters..
