The Alberta United Conservative Party would defeat the NDP if a provincial election was held now, according to a poll done by Leger. .The poll, done for Postmedia, said the UCP under Alberta Premier Jason Kenney would capture 44% of committed voters versus 41% for the NDP at the moment. .It said there is strong support for the NDP in Edmonton, with the party capturing 52% of the vote versus 33% for the UCP. The UCP leads in Calgary, as the party garnered 44% of the vote compared to 38% for the NDP. .And the poll said among the Alberta UCP’s supporters, leadership candidate Brian Jean is the favourite to win the race and would be most likely to defeat the NDP in the next election. .Jean would win on the sixth ballot, beating out leadership candidate Travis Toews by 53% to 47%, predicts the poll..It predicts Smith would be knocked out of the race in the fifth ballot. She would not score higher than 31% in any around after starting off at 27% on the first ballot. .Leadership candidates Rebecca Schulz, Todd Loewen, Leela Aheer, and Rajan Sawhney would fail to garner more than 4% of the vote on the first ballot. .The people polled were UCP supporters and not all party members eligible to cast ballots..This latest poll contradicts the findings from one released by Mainstreet Research on August 5 suggesting Smith is the clear frontrunner. .The poll said Smith would become UCP leader on the fourth ballot, with 46.4% support on the first. She would be 20 points ahead of Toews. .Jean would be at 10.7%. The rest of the candidates would be much further behind. .The Leger poll was conducted online with 1,006 respondents September 1 to 5, with almost even splits between Edmonton, Calgary, and rural areas. The poll has a margin of error of +/- 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
