Incumbent Ken Sim has the most support of any mayoral candidate running in this year’s election—but a crowded field and significant number of undecided voters mean the race for Vancouver’s top job is far from decided, according to a pollster. Research Co.’s latest poll shows Sim with 30 per cent support among decided voters. Current councillor Pete Fry and Sim’s former chief of staff Kareem Allam are tied for second place at 19 per cent each. Former councillor Colleen Hardwick was polling at 14 per cent. “This is completely wide open, and it could be a very real scenario here where somebody wins the election with less than a third of the vote,” Research Co. president Mario Canseco told CTV Your Moring Vancouver. “This could go anywhere,” he added. One of the factors leading to the uncertainty is the fact that the official list of candidates has not been locked in. The other is that one in four people surveyed in the latest poll were undecided, Canseco explained. Among those surveyed who were 55 and older, the undecided rate was 36 per cent. “Municipal voters tend to be older, and we have more than a third who are telling us, ‘I don’t know who to vote for,’” Canseco said. Asked to weigh in on who the most likely candidate would be to defeat Sim, the poll found 39 per cent were not sure. The deadline for parties to finalize who will appear on the ballot is Sept. 11. Between now and then, Canseco said it’s possible the field of mayoral candidates will narrow. The municipal election is Oct. 17. The survey was conducted online among 401 likely voters in the city, according to Research Co. The margin of error for a sample of this size is plus or minus 4.9 percentage points, 19 times out of 20
