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Voters are split when it comes to the two referendum questions on the fall ballot, a new poll suggests.
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An online Leger poll of 1,377 Albertans conducted for Postmedia from July 22-26 found 57 per cent were in favour of the province permanently switching to daylight time, while 43 per cent believed section 36(2) of the Constitution Act, which is the principle of making equalization payments to the federal government, should be removed.
While three in five Albertans said they were in favour of staying on daylight time year-round, 31 per cent were opposed. Edmontonians were also on board to stop rolling their clocks back with 53 per cent of Edmonton residents endorsing the change and 35 per cent opposed.
If the province stays on daylight time, Alberta and the Eastern provinces would be three hours apart for half the year, something Ian Large, Leger’s executive vice-president, said might cause problems. He adds it was a little surprising that question had a lot of support.
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“I’m not sure there’s been a lot of discussion about the implication of that because it’s one of those things that’s a really good idea in theory but may not be such a great idea in practice,” he said.
Equalization a ‘very, very complex question’
Large said the equalization payments question is a complicated question and a “red herring” type of question because the provincial government can’t change the Constitution itself. However, he said he expected more support for the referendum.
“I would have thought that given the frustration with equalization that has built in Alberta for many, many years and this notion of why are we sending cheques to Ottawa every year, I would have expected this to be much higher than 43 per cent,” said Large. “What is not clear is whether Albertans really understand. It’s a very, very complex question.”
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Older Albertans were more likely to believe equalization should be removed from the Constitution, with 51 per cent of 55-64-year-olds and 51 per cent of those aged 65 and up supporting the referendum.
Leading up to the October election, Large said he believes there will be more discussion about what equalization payments mean and what the vote implies.
Large said neither referendum question is “hitting it out of the park” in terms of support or opposition.
When it comes to getting more Albertans to the polls this year, Large said he isn’t convinced these two questions will do the job. He said Edmonton had a 34 per cent turnout for the 2017 election and these referendums might not engage more voters.
“These questions, they’re not terribly engaging,” he said. “The daylight saving question, sure, maybe that’s going to affect most people, but removing a clause from the Constitution, unless you’re a constitutional scholar or someone that’s really, really engaged in this topic, I’m not sure that’s going to bring you specifically out to the poll to vote.”
Online surveys cannot be assigned a margin of error because they do not randomly sample the population. If the data were collected through a random sample, the margin of error would be plus or minus three per cent, 19 times out of 20.
More than half of Albertans support a permanent daylight time: Poll - Edmonton Journal
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