What are the polls telling us about Yes? (Continued)


Here are a few polls from the past two years. What's most noteworthy about the results is the repeated high number of affirmative responses >80%.

Black Press Poll, April 2013
"Do you support amalgamation in the Capital Region to reduce the number of municipalities from 13?"
75% Yes     25% No

Angus Reid Global Public Opinion Poll, July 28, 2014
84% Yes in favour of amalgamation
89% Yes support a non-binding referendum on amalgamation

Saanich News Poll, September 18, 2014 Question of the Day
"Should all municipal councils in the CRD put an amalgamation question on the Nov. 15 ballot?"
85% Yes     15% No

CHEK TV News Poll, October 2, 2014
"Should there be a CRD-wide referendum on amalgamation?"
82% Yes     18% No

Amalgamation Yes Poll, August 2015
"Do you want your municipality to participate in a study on amalgamation and governance with 12 other municipalities?"
82% Yes     18% No

Amalgamation Yes Poll (ongoing, with results to Dec 31, 2015)
"Are you in favour of reducing the number of municipalities in the Capital Region through amalgamation?"
82% Yes     18% No

Now consider the landslide affirmative responses to the various non-binding referendum questions on the ballot in 8 of the 13 municipalities. (Those 8 municipalities constitute almost 90% of the Capital Region population).

Central Saanich
71% Yes     29% No

Esquimalt (2 questions)
87% Yes     13% No
67% Yes     33% No

Langford
50% Yes (50.1%)     50% No (49.9%)

North Saanich
63% Yes     37% No

Oak Bay
38% Yes     62% No

Saanich
89% Yes     11% No

Sidney
68% Yes     32% No

Victoria
80% Yes     20% No


To recap, in the 8 municipalities (290,000+ population) with referendum questions that dealt with reviewing or consolidating governance in the region, the YES votes comprised the vast majority of responses. On average 75% voted YES.

So, it begs the question: what is it about YES that our local politicians don't understand? When will they respond to the people who elected them and cooperate in a regional study to improve local government?  Are you satisfied that your voting preference is been respected and is being acted upon by your elected mayor and councillors?  What can you do about it?