If the way to voters' hearts is through their stomachs, it looks like Stephen Harper and his Conservatives are winning – according to a food poll taken by a Surrey bakery.
Tallying up customers' menu choices, the British Store and Sherlock's Cafe, at 13369 72 Ave., has Harper at 46 pies (steak and Guinness), leading Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau (chicken pie) by six pies. The NDP's Thomas Mulcair (steak and mushroom) trails at 37 pies.
However, things look a little different for the main contestants in the riding of Surrey-Newton, where the bakery is located.
There, Liberal contender Sukh Dhaliwal (steak and kidney) has a narrow margin of victory at 40 pies over NDP incumbent MP Jinny Sims (steak and veggie) at 37. Conservative newcomer Harpreet Singh (chicken curry) trails at 35 pies.
Store owner Andy Bradshaw said his shop took its eight most popular pie creations and drew them at random to assign them to the three national leaders and three of the local candidates.
The pie poll was extremely accurate during the last civic election, and Bradshaw anticipates it will be as scientific as anything else the public has seen.
Bradshaw jokingly said his pie poll far exceeds the accuracy of any other.
The poll started on Sept. 18.
The results, and the truth of Bradshaw's claim of top accuracy, will be known on Oct. 20.