From Okotoks to Vaudreuil to Corner Brook, here's Canada through the eye of voters

Housing in Vancouver, health care in Nova Scotia, jobs in Alberta?

Not quite. When it comes to the big issues driving the popular vote, that's way too simple. 

Yet there are fascinating trends that emerge across the country when a person stops to chat. And that's what CBC News did during this campaign.

Journalists carved out an extra hour or day here and there to spend more time just talking with Canadians to understand the backstory to their vote — what really matters to them. 

We've been sharing these stories across our shows, and together, we learned a lot about Canada. 

So as the election campaign wraps up, we took the opportunity to look back and tour Canada again through the eyes of voters, with a bit of statistical help to check our assumptions.

The data in this story comes from Pollara. In a series of polls throughout the campaign, the company asked voters what issues they'll base their vote on. We've combined those polls to get a larger sample size, about 5,500 Canadians who responded through online panels and phone interviews between March 24 and April 21.

We also tapped Andrew Enns, vice-president of the polling company Leger, to walk through regional differences in the numbers.

In a province where softwood lumber is a major industry, tariffs were a big concern, as they are throughout Canada. 

But one regional difference was that crime, homelessness and drug use also came up in B.C. frequently, and from voters with different perspectives on how to solve the issues. It's having a polarizing effect on voters, said Enns.

At her barbershop in Kamloops, Deanna DeCicco put out her sandwich board sign and someone kicked a hole in it. That's the kind of disorder she sees as fuelled by drug use and untreated mental illness.

"We, daily, have people screaming, open drug use," she said, hoping for a change in government and a party that will take on these issues more aggressively.

In Vancouver, Trevor Jang is three years drug-free after a 15-year struggle to get there. He said he's looking to hear a plan to support people through addiction.

When CBC journalists hit the streets in Langley, Surrey and on Vancouver Island in places such as Parksville, people also spoke about concerns such as keeping up with population growth. Housing is a prime example — some voters say it's just too difficult to find what people need at a price they can afford.