Poll has Olivier surging as NDP, Grits jostle

The Toronto Star published a Forum Research poll today showing independent candidate Andrew Olivier is surging in the run up to the Feb. 5 byelection.

That poll found Liberal candidate Glenn Thibeault, at 33 per cent, has climbed into a slight lead over the NDP's Suzanne Shawbonquit, who was at 30 per cent. The two have been jostling for position for the entire brief campaign. While the leading candidates' positions remain virtually unchanged, the share of the vote has dropped.

A Jan. 15 Forum poll had Shawbonquit in the lead with 42 per cent of the vote and Thibeault at 40 per cent.

The Wednesday telephone poll of 689 Sudbury residents used interactive voice response. It had an accuracy of plus or minus four percentage points, 19 times out of 20, Forum reported

In a major turnaround from that Jan. 15 poll, which had him with just one per cent of the vote, the poll released today has Olivier surging now at 22 per cent support.

The poll put Tory Paula Peroni in fourth place with 11 per cent and David Robinson for the Green Party at three per cent.

With Premier Kathleen Wynne in town today and tomorrow (her fourth visit), and NDP leader Andrea Horwath here at the same time, the leading parties are channelling considerable effort into trying to win the byelection.

Green Party leader Mike Schreiner is also in town this weekend to knock on doors with candidate David Robinson.

The next scheduled all-candidates event is Jan. 29 at Collège Boréal, hosted by the Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce. All candidates have been invited.

There are 10 candidates running.