The long-time Liberal red London West riding looks like it might be ready to change colour, but it’s proving to be a tight race right to the end.
A July 24th poll by Forum Research shows PC candidate Ali Chahbar with 36 per cent support, NDP candidate Peggy Sattler with 31 per cent and Liberal Ken Coran with 17 per cent. Three other candidates share the final 16 per cent.
But in byelections, and particularly summer byelections, a lot will depend on voter turnout.
With just three days left, NDP candidate Peggy Sattler says she’s doing her best to get London West voters to cast their ballot for her.
“Talk to as many voters as we can, wherever we can find them - that's why we're at a Valumart. We've been going door to door across all the neighbourhoods of this riding."
But some neighbourhoods are more politically engaged than others, and in the past the Liberals and Progressive Conservatives have been their parties of choice.
In fact, London’s River Bend community had one of the highest turnouts in the last provincial election with over 66 per cent of voters casting a ballot, and in the past they've swung overwhelming Tory blue.
PC candidate Ali Chahbar says there’s a reason for that, “We're the only party that's put together a substantive policy on how we're going to bring jobs back to Ontario.”
He also says it’s time to punish the Liberals for their performance, “The gas plant scandal or the ORNGE ambulance scandal…or the eHealth boondoggle or diluted chemo scandal, it’s a theme that's emerging here.”
Sattler agrees that “people are tired of the same old politics,” but adds “many haven't voted NDP before.”
Both Sattler and Chahbar are poised to pick up a lot of supporters, but Chahbar stresses it is the NDP that has kept the Liberals in power, preventing a province-wide election.
And he says “A vote for the NDP is a vote for the Liberals.”
It’s a tight race and with the final push on, and the team that gets voters to forego the beach in favour of the ballot box will likely capture the seat.
