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The poll results come as Nenshi and Smith publicly sparred about the multibillion-dollar Green Line transit project Friday, with each holding news conferences after Smith said Thursday the project was a “boondoggle” and he would halt work and re-examine the alignment if he wins the mayor’s chair.

“He says someone didn’t do the math but he clearly does not understand the math,” said Nenshi, who blasted Smith’s Green Line stance as shocking.

“It is reckless, it is irresponsible and it is uninformed to try and pull back on such an important project for Calgary,” Nenshi told reporters, adding he was “a little agitated because this is the work of so many citizens.”

The latest poll numbers follow a Sept. 28 survey of 1,000 Calgarians by Mainstreet that showed Smith at 42per cent backing and Nenshi nine points behind with 33 per cent support.

Maggi and his team were widely criticized for that poll and the president of Mainstreet Research said he’s extremely confident with both polls and happy to be tested against the outcome of the election.

“I’m cheering for math. I’m not cheering for Smith, or Nenshi, or Chabot, or anybody else, I’m cheering for math,” Maggi said.

“The math is the math. That’s the only thing I can do is take the sample, weigh it accordingly, test it as many different ways as I can possibly test it, and then put out our number. This is no different than what we’ve done before, time and time again.”

While Nenshi enjoyed approval ratings in the 70s and 80s for years after his surprise victory in 2010, the number of Calgarians who disapprove of a man who won the 2013 mayoral race with 73.6 per cent of the vote has steadily increased in recent months.

Advance polls for this year’s election opened on Oct. 4 and more than 19,000 Calgarians cast their vote in the first two days, a massive increase from the 2013 and 2010 election.

“That’s a clear indication of a change election,” Maggi said.

The other men vying for the mayor’s chair on Oct. 16 are David Lapp, Emile Gabriel, Larry Heather, Jason Achtymichuk, Brent Chisholm, Curtis Olson and Stan Waciak.

The Mainstreet Research/Postmedia poll is considered accurate to within 2.53 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.