Discussions

Over the past week, eBrandon conducted a survey of site users in an attempt to gauge Brandonites’ opinions on their representation at the various levels of government.  
 
The survey was carried out in a similar format to those that attempt to assign an “approval rating” to politicians at higher levels. Participants were asked for their opinion on the job performance of their mayor, councillor, MLA, MP and school board by choosing one of “Strongly approve,” “Approve,” “Neutral,” “Disapprove,” “Strongly disapprove.”  
 
While surveys at higher levels of government assign a percentage to arrive at an approval rating, higher apathy (“Neutral” votes) at the civic level led to the need for a slightly different calculation for determining popularity. For the purposes of this survey, the ratio of “approves” to “disapproves” was taken to come up with an approval rating for each. A number of 1.00 indicates an equal number of each, the higher the number the greater the approval.  
 
Some highlights based on the data collected from the 243 responses that were received:  
 
- Over two people expressed disapproval for the job of Mayor Dave Burgess compared to those that approved, leading to a rating of 0.42. Of note, this rating rises to 0.65 for respondents who have lived in Brandon ten years or less but falls to 0.34 amongst those who have been Brandonites for more than ten.  
 
- Amongst survey participants, Brandon’s most popular councillors within their riding were Ken Fitzpatrick (Linden Lanes, 1.60 rating), Doug Paterson (Assiniboine, 1.57 rating), and Murray Blight (Victoria, 1.33 rating). The least popular were Margo Campbell (Richmond, 0.10) and Jeff Harwood (University, 0.33 rating). Harwood and Jim McCrae (Meadows) received the most apathy, 32% of responses for each being “Neutral.”  
 
- On average respondents expressed significantly more dissatisfaction with the performance of City Council as a whole compared to their own individual councillor. On average, individual councillors received a 0.83 rating. Council as an entity in itself received just a 0.23.  
 
- Brandon’s two MLA’s rated very well. Brandon West’s Rick Borotsik received a 1.67 amongst his constituents that participated in the survey, the highest of any local politician. Drew Caldwell received a 1.26. Very interesting to note that Borotsik received a whopping 2.33 from constituents under 40. Conversely, Caldwell received a very high 2.22 from constituents 40 and over.  
 
- MP Merv Tweed received a 1.13 rating, with reasonable consistency regardless of survey participants’ age or amount of time living in Brandon.  
 
- The Brandon School Board received the lowest rating of any politician or entity that was the subject of the survey, 0.21.  
 
Full results of the survey can be viewed at http://www.ebrandon.ca/april2009survey.aspx  
 
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Thanks to all who took part.  
It would be very interesting to hear peoples thoughts on some of the more noticable trends, including:  
 
- Mayor Burgess being approx twice as popular with people who have lived in Brandon for ten years or less  
- Rick Borotsik being insanely popular with those under 40  
- Drew Caldwell being extremely popular with those over 40  
 
Please note that with the council ratings, while you can definitely see some trends there were some wards that only had 14 and 18 replies. An even more in depth survey would likely be required to confidently draw any conclusions.  
 
Edited by Adam, 2009-04-15 21:57:01