With latest release from 338Canada, Taylor Bachrach opens up lead in Skeena-Bulkley Valley

With one week of electoral forums out of the way, the NDP has increased its lead across the region, jumping to their largest margin of success since the campaign began.

The findings from 338Canada which were released October 13th show the NDP's Taylor Bachrach having jumped to near a twelve percent lead over challenger Conservative Claire Rattée, the latter having dropped below the 30% mark for the first time weeks.

As of the 13th, Mr. Bachrach was listed at having the projected popular vote of 40.3% of voters, with Ms. Rattée next at 28.2%.

Those number account for close to a four per cent bump for the NDP candidate, while the Conservatives saw two per cent of their vote slip over the last seven days.

Further down the listings, Liberal Dave Birdi has a slight edge over the Greens Mike Sawyer, with Birdi holding at 14.2%, with Sawyer not far off at 13.3%

Jody Craven of the People's Party of Canada saw a slight shift downwards over the last week with 3.4% of the vote now projected to go his way.

Much of the voter intention change came at the expense of the Green and Liberal candidates who both saw voter intention declines from seven days ago.

The candidates have a few more opportunities to try to shift those voter intentions, with a pair of electoral forums set for the 15th in Smithers and the 17th in Terrace, the latter a forum which will be broadcast on CityWest Community Television and streamed live through their Facebook page and website.

For a look back at the Prince Rupert forum see our archive page here, You can catch up on the past electoral forums, by way of the CityWest Community TV Facebook page.

The latest release will certainly set the pace for this final week of active campaigning by the candidates, and for the Conservative candidate it would seem that to gain some of the momentum back Ms. Rattée will have to try and claim a significant chunk of the support for the Liberal candidate and try to chip away at some of the remaining support for the People's Party.

For the NDP the final week will most likely be a stay the course kind of week for Mr. Bachrach, with perhaps a redoubling of the environmental message to try to chip away at any rebound towards the Greens during the waning days of the campaign.

You can review some of the key talking points of the campaign so far from our archive page here.

Election Day is this coming Monday, with voting taking place at the Jim Ciccone Civic Centre in Prince Rupert polling stations will be open from 7AM to 7PM.

Voters have the option of voting during this week at the Elections Canada office on First Avenue West, across from the Museum you can get more information on the North Coast vote from that location.

You can explore the provincial and national notes for the 2019 campaign from the 338Canada homepage.

To return to the most recent blog posting of the day, click here.