Based on what?
Virtually every poll on a subway vs LRT came out roughly 50/50. I'd also suggest that no one dislikes the idea of a subway extension. Do they like a one stop subway extension if it means scrapping the RT at a huge cost?
At a public meeting a year ago,
people were very clearly frustrated with the one stop plan.
I seriously question how many people realize that the SSE means the RT is being eliminated. There seem to be a significant number of people who don't realize the SSE isn't supplementing the RT, it's completely replacing it. John Tory certainly doesn't mention it at all his photo ops in front of the RT touting the new extension. In fact, he outright lied to a citizen who questioned what would happen to the existing RT stops:
Brenda Thompson, of the group Scarborough Transit Action — an offshoot of TTC Riders, grilled the mayor about the project's costs, and called on him to go back to a light rail plan that would have featured several stops.
"What about the station at Ellesmere? What about the station at Centennial College?" Thompson asked the mayor, who replied that those stops would eventually be covered by SmartTrack or other options.
"There are going to be more new transit stations in Scarborough when this is finished," Tory said.
This all speaks to two unfortunate realities - politicians are not being honest about this extension (no surprise), but there's also a lack of engagement by the local population.