Former Ontario agriculture minister Jeff Leal is in the lead to be the next mayor of Peterborough, a Mainstreet poll suggests.

Leal was on Peterborough's council from 1985 to 2003, and was re-elected four times to Queen's Park as a Liberal.

He is polling at 29 per cent, ahead of former federal Liberal MP Maryam Monsef's 18 per cent. 35 per cent are undecided. Despite polling respectably, however, Monsef has said she isn't running. Monsef came a strong second in her previous bid to be mayor of Peterborough, in 2014. Elected federally in 2015, she occupied several cabinet positions before losing in 2021 to Conservative Michelle Ferreri in her riding of Peterborough—Kawartha.

University graduates and people with incomes above $100,000 are more likely to support Monsef.

Sixty-nine per cent say they are somewhat or very dissatisfied with local government in Peterborough. Monsef's supporters are more likely to be satisfied, and Leal's more likely to be dissatisfied.

Incumbent mayor Diane Therrien is not running for re-election; 61 per cent of those polled said they somewhat or strongly disapproved of her.

Eighty per cent of those polled said they thought housing in Peterborough was unaffordable, and 47 per cent thought the city was building too little housing.

A strong majority, 61 per cent, opposed the strong mayor system recently floated by Ontario Premier Doug Ford. Women, younger voters and university graduates tended to oppose it most strongly.

This Mainstreet Research poll was conducted on July 22 through July 26. A sample of 550 people was interviewed by automated telephone interviews. The poll is accurate to within ±4.2 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

Mainstreet Research is part owner of iPolitics and QP Briefing.

Poll: Ex-Ontario ag minister Jeff Leal leads race to be Peterborough’s mayor

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