The Burlington Gazette/Focus Burlington survey was conducted between August 22nd and August 31th. The survey was shared online through the BurlingtonGazette.ca and FocusBurlington.ca websites. Posts asking for input were made on Facebook, Instagram, BlueSky, X, Reddit and NextDoor.
In total, 324 people responded to the survey. Thank you to everyone who participated.
As with any online survey, there is a possibility of multiple responses from the same person. A CAPTCHA and other techniques were used to prevent multiple responses to the extent possible. There was an option to enter an email address. With past surveys, we’ve found that requiring an email address or a Google login discourages many people from taking the survey.
What we learned:
There is only one poll that matters: the election. No matter what this survey or any subsequent surveys or polls show, we all need to vote.
If the election for Burlington’s next Mayor were being held today, who would you vote for?
Our results are dramatically different than the Campaign Shop survey conducted in early August; possible reasons for this are set out below.
Of the people who provided email addresses, just over 70% were in favour of Lisa Kearns.
Do you consider yourself a decided voter or might your choice change as you learn more about other candidates?
Of the 208 decided voters, 65% or 136 were in favour of Lisa Kearns.
Marianne Meed Ward has been mayor for 8 years. Do you approve or disapprove of the job she is doing?
Overall, is Burlington moving in the right direction or the wrong direction?
For you, which is the most important issue facing Burlington?
Who do you think will do the best job managing Burlington’s finances and budget?
Postal Code
Age Range
Comparisons
The Strategic Liaisons results are here:
Why are the results so different?
We think the difference may be in methodology, and both surveys may be valid.
The Liaison’s survey appears to have been commissioned by a company called The Campaign Shop. The Campaign Shop webpage opens with “Win Your Election. Any size. Any Budget.” We suspect one of the mayoral candidates paid The Campaign Shop, which then paid Strategic Liaisons to conduct a survey.
https://www.thecampaignshop.ca
It’s worth noting the following:
- The Campaign Shop survey included this question: “Do you have a favourable view or unfavourable view of Rory Nisan?” It’s difficult to guess whether or not a candidate other than Nisan would pay for a survey that included this question.
- Strategic Liaisons doesn’t show the Burlington survey on their website in this list of polls: https://www.liaison.ca/polls
- The links in the Burlington Today article to the detailed data of the Campaign Shop survey start with https://storage.ghost.io
- The Campaign Shop survey, conducted by telephone, reached a much younger audience than the Focus Burlington/Gazette survey conducted over the internet.
| Age Range: | 18-34 | 35-49 | 50-64 | 65+ |
| 21% | 25% | 26% | 27% |
The Campaign Shop survey age range for decided and leaning voters.
The Campaign Shop survey used Random Digit Dialling across landline and cellular networks to reach a random sample of 515 Burlington residents. Our survey was shared online and on social media. It’s quite possible that two different groups of people participated, funnelled by technology to the two different surveys, making both surveys valid.
There were two other differences: One – our survey started after nominations closed. With five known candidates, there was no need to include an “other” option. At the time of the Campaign Shop survey, nominations were still open, and only Kearns, Meed Ward, and Nisan had entered the race. Two – we also left out an undecided choice: our question was “if the election were being held today?” If you’re voting, you can’t be undecided. The Campaign Shop survey showed 19% of respondents were undecided and 5% wanted someone other than Kearns, Nisan, or Meed Ward. This 24% block is enough to move any of the three top candidates into first place.
Burlington Today had a poll on its website that showed Kearns leading when this screen grab was captured.
The good news is that the race is on. We have an interesting array of candidates running for mayor. If you want to see your candidate win, help out! Volunteer, donate, put a sign on your lawn.
Lastly, there is only one poll that matters: the election. No matter what these surveys or any subsequent surveys show, we all need to vote.
The Burlington Gazette also reported on this survey: https://burlingtongazette.ca/did-a-credible-survey-arrive-at-a-consensus-on-who-should-be-the-next-mayor-more-than-60-wanted-lisa-kearns/
Use this link to download the Burlington Gazette/Focus Burlington results (Excel): https://www.focusburlington.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Results260831noemail.xlsx
The Campaign Shop results are available here:
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