REGINA - As the municipal election for Regina is right around the corner, one local resident has created a survey to get a sense of who people will vote for.
David Loblaw of Regina created a survey where participants can choose who they will vote for mayor, council and the school board trustees.
Loblaw described himself as an 'election nerd.' He came from a very political family, and when he voted for the first time as an 18-year-old in 1978, he became hooked on elections.
He said election night for him is "like [the] Stanley Cup final or the Grey Cup and all that. I mean, it's so amazing, especially in [the] municipal [election] because [you] really don't know the trends because there's no massive polls or anything like that [like in a provincial or federal election]."
The survey currently has nearly 800 participants. Loblaw said he's eliminated any double or triple voters by checking out the IP address of each participant.
Loblaw can also track the age ranges of those who responded to the survey and see what demographics are participating.
According to him, people between 40 and 49 years old have put the most input into the survey. Loblaw said it is likely because these people have children and are more interested in the school board aspect. He said even a few people 80 or older have participated in the survey.
Loblaw said he reached out to candidates, letting them know about his survey, and between them and other individuals, there has been around a 95 per cent approval rating for his survey.
Most of the candidates find the survey as good information to have available. However, the roughly 5 per cent not in favour have said the survey is "biased and unscientific."
However, Loblaw admitted he is not a pollster and polls, in general, are not accurate.
While the results may not be fully accurate, the current mayoral results are intriguing. Loblaw’s survey has Chad Bachynski leading the results, with 47 per cent of the participants wanting him to become mayor.
Loblaw reacted to those results as surprising, considering Bachynski was unheard of before entering the mayoral race.
He did note some people like a fresh face, and Bachynski fits that build. Coming in 2nd place for the mayoral survey is Sandra Masters with 20 per cent of the responses, while Lori Bresciani has 10 per cent of the responses.
When asked if he was surprised by another other race for councillor or school board trustee, Loblaw pointed to Ward 4 as a tight race for his survey.
Ward 4 will have a fresh face regardless of who wins due to Bresciani, the former Ward 4 councillor, now running for mayor. Kofo Oni currently leads the survey with 18 per cent of the responses, but the next few candidates are in a tight race. Mark Burton, Deb Nyczai, Charles Umeh, and Danish Hasan are all separated by 2 per cent in terms of the responses for Ward 4.
Overall, Loblaw was surprised by the amount of people participating in the survey, as he worried no one would try it and said it would have been "kind of embarrassing."
The survey is open to anyone, and Loblaw plans to close it at 12 a.m. on Wednesday and do a final tally.
For those who want to participate in the survey, head to http://www.drloblaw.com.
