Ford's approval rating still high: Poll
BY DON PEAT, CITY HALL BUREAU CHIEF
FIRST POSTED: SATURDAY, MARCH 17, 2012 05:00 AM EDT | UPDATED: FRIDAY, MARCH 16, 2012 07:28 PM EDT
TORONTO - Mayor Rob Ford’s support among Torontonians may be the only thing his opponents haven’t been able to derail at City Hall this month.
A new Forum Research poll released exclusively to the Toronto Sun Friday shows Ford’s support has stayed above 40% despite a rough month of council rebellion against the mayor.
Around 41% of Toronto residents approve of the job Ford is doing as mayor, a month earlier, a Forum poll found Ford had a 43% approval rating. Ford support is strongest among older Torontonians, suburban residents and car drivers.
Forum president Lorne Bozinoff said the poll shows that despite Ford’s rough ride at council in the last month, he’s still riding high with Toronto residents.
“There has been almost no impact on his approval rating,” Bozinoff said. “It is hard to imagine so much happening and having so little impact on public opinion.”
In the last month, Ford has seen several council revolts. Councillors rejected his plan to bury the Eglinton LRT in Scarborough, council dumped all his loyalists from the TTC commission and he’s now facing a court challenge alleging he violated the municipal conflict of interest act. On Wednesday, Ford could be handed another loss at council if councillors vote as expected in favour of building the Sheppard Ave. LRT instead of pushing ahead with an extension of the Sheppard subway.
Bozinoff attributed Ford’s support to people being “pretty firm in their convictions”.
“People supporting Ford are not budging,” he said.
TTC chairman Karen Stintz’s approval rating also held steady and much higher than Ford’s. Around 55% of Torontonians approve of the way Stintz is doing her job, up from 53% in a mid-February Forum poll.
The poll also found if Ford were to run against Stintz and Councillor Adam Vaughan in a three-way race, he would win but barely. Ford would get around 35% support while Vaughan would get 29% and Stintz would get 23%.
In a two-way race, the poll found Ford would lose to either Vaughan or Stintz if either one of them were the lone candidates to oppose him in an election. Ford would earn 37% support in either election while Vaughan would earn 49% as the lone anti-Ford candidate. Stintz would earn 46% if she faced off one-on-one with Ford.
Bozinoff said Ford has established himself as the candidate for subway supporters to support and “if he sticks to his guns” will likely keep that base in the next election.
“Ford’s got his base, he really, really has his base,” he said.
Forum conducted the poll of 1,027 Toronto residents on March 14 and 15 through an interactive voice response telephone survey. It is considered accurate plus or minute 3.1%, 19 times out of 20.
