People’s Party at 5.1% in Last Week’s Polling

[Ottawa – August 19, 2021] As the 44th federal election campaign kicks into full gear, the question of whether or not the People’s Party will be invited to the debates on September 8th and 9th has emerged. The Leader’s Debates Commission is responsible for setting the criteria for the leaders’ participation in the debates. According to the rules set by the commission, participating parties must meet at least one of the following three requirements:

• The party must be represented in the House of Commons by a Member of Parliament who was initially elected under that party’s banner;
• The party must have won four per cent of the vote in the most recent election; or
• The party must hold the support of at least four per cent of voters according to national public opinions polls.

While the Liberal Party, Conservative Party, NDP, Green Party, and Bloc Québécois all meet the first two criteria, the People’s Party’s participation hinges on public opinion polls. EKOS does not endorse any political party, nor does it take any position on the election or who should and should not appear in the leader’s debates. However, to help inform the commission’s decision, we are releasing our most recent one-week roll-up based on a robust sample of 2,134 Canadians adults. In this survey, the People’s Party are at 5.1% nationally, which is clearly above the four-point threshold required for admission.

This survey was conducted using High Definition Interactive Voice Response (HD-IVR™) technology, which allows respondents to enter their preferences by punching the keypad on their phone, rather than telling them to an operator. In an effort to reduce the coverage bias of landline only RDD, we created a dual landline/cell phone RDD sampling frame for this research. As a result, we are able to reach those with a landline and cell phone, as well as cell phone only households and landline only households.

The field dates for this survey are August 11-17, 2021. In total, a random sample of 2,134 Canadians aged 18 and over responded to the survey. The margin of error associated with the total sample is +/- 2.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

Please note that the margin of error increases when the results are sub-divided (i.e., error margins for sub-groups such as region, sex, age, education). All the data have been statistically weighted by age, gender, and region to ensure the sample’s composition reflects that of the actual population of Canada according to Census data.

EKOS follows the CRIC Public Opinion Research Standards and Disclosure Requirements.

Please click here for a copy of the data tables.

Please click here for a copy of the questionnaire that was used for this survey.