Veteran city councillor Catherine McKenney has a strong lead in the race for Ottawa mayor, a Mainstreet poll suggests.

McKenney has 34 per cent support among all voters, well ahead of their nearest rival, Mark Sutcliffe, at 14 per cent. Thirty-eight per cent were undecided.

McKenney's downtown Centretown ward was afflicted by the convoy occupation last winter; they were a prominent voice supporting earlier and firmer action to remove it.

Outgoing mayor Jim Watson had announced that he wouldn't run again before the protests.

McKenney's support is strongest among university graduates.

Sixty-one per cent of respondents said they were somewhat or very dissatisfied with local government in Ottawa.

Respondents said that creating affordable housing was the most important issue facing the community. Seventy-eight per cent said that housing was unaffordable; 93 per cent of McKenney's supporters called housing unaffordable.

Seventy per cent, however, said that their own neighbourhoods had as much housing as they could reasonably support.

A strong majority, 71 per cent, opposed the strong mayor system recently floated by Ontario Premier Doug Ford.

Read More: Horwath out to strong early lead in Hamilton mayoral race: poll

This Mainstreet Research poll was conducted on July 22 and 23. A sample of 663 people was interviewed by automated telephone interviews. The poll is accurate to within ±3.8 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

Mainstreet Research is part owner of iPolitics and QP Briefing.

Poll: Catherine McKenney has strong lead in Ottawa mayoral race

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