The Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce has polled all mayoral and ward candidates asking all candidates to respond to the three referendum questions. The candidates were all sent the poll in the form of a mock ballot with the questions, in order, being:
- Question 1: Are you in favour of retail business establishments having the choice to open to the public on December 26?
- Question 2: Are you in favour of retail business establishments having the choice to open to the public on the Civic Holiday, the first Monday in August?
- Question 3: Are you in favour of allowing retail business establishments to choose the hours when they are open to the public?
These mock ballots asked the candidates to check YES or NO to each of the questions. Some respondents indicated that they did not want to answer yes or no to any of the questions and preferred their answer to read “no comment” to the questions.
John Querney, co-chair of the chamber’s deregulation working group, believes polling the candidates on such a pressing issue is necessary, especially with the chamber being the only registered campaigner. “It’s very important that the voters see where each candidate stands on certain issues that are relevant to the community” he said.
76% of the 70 municipal candidates responded to the survey. Of those who responded, 58% voted yes to question 1, 62% voted yes to question 2 and 72% voted yes to question 3.
21% responded no to question 1, 17% responded no to question 2 and 8% responded no to question 3.
21% of respondents replied with “no comment” to each question.
Many of the respondents indicating “no comment” provided a statement to explain their answer. Some of these comments included not wanting to influence the vote by giving their personal opinion on a referendum question and respecting the wishes of their ward. Other candidates noted that it is an issue for the electorate to decide and that they will consider the results of the referendum even if a binding result is not achieved.
“The survey shows that the majority of candidates who responded are in favour of deregulation. Of course the ultimate goal is to receive a binding result for all three questions in favour of deregulation. But if we don’t get the 50%, but the results show that people are overwhelming in favour of stores setting their own hours, we want to know that the next mayor and council will be committed to carrying through with the wishes of the electorate,” says Andre Dumais, co-chair of the deregulation working group.
The Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce is reminding citizens to get out and vote to make sure the store hours question is resolved once and for all: “I know there are a lot of undecided voters out there uncertain about who they want their next mayor and council to be, but we’re really trying to encourage people to vote on the referendum questions. Even if you choose not to vote for mayor and council, you can still vote on the referendum questions,” adds Andre Dumais. Voters are reminded that they are able to answer any part of the ballot that they wish.
Full details of the responses of the individual candidates can be found here and attached: https://sudburychamber.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Candidates-Polling-Information-Release-FINAL.pdf.
Summary
Responded: 53
Non-responsive:17
Question 1
Are you in favour of retail business establishments having the choice to open to the public on December 26?
YES: 58% of respondents (31)
NO: 21% (11)
NO COMMENT: 21% (11)
Question 2
Are you in favour of retail business establishments having the choice to open to the public on the Civic Holiday, the first Monday in August?
YES: 62% (33)
NO: 17% (9)
NO COMMENT: 21% (11)
Question 3
Are you in favour of allowing retail business establishments to choose the hours when they are open to the public?
YES: 72% (38)
NO: 8% (4)
NO COMMENT: 21% (11)
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