Bill Blair knocks off Dan Harris in Scarborough Southwest if he runs as a Liberal

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Bill Blair knocks off Dan Harris in Scarborough Southwest if he runs as a Liberal

Harris tied for second with generic Conservative candidate

TORONTO February 14th, 2015 - In a random sampling of public opinion taken by the Forum Poll™ among 557 voters in the federal riding of Scarborough Southwest, almost 4-in-10 will vote for Bill Blair, Toronto’s soon-to-be-former police chief, if he runs as a Liberal in a federal election held today (39%), while about 3-in-10 would vote for the incumbent, NDP MP Dan Harris (29%) or for a Conservative candidate (past candidate Gavan Paranchothy's name was used - 27%).

Despite this, Harris has higher approvals

Four-in-ten voters approve of incumbent Dan Harris (39%), and his net favourable score (approve minus disapprove) is a healthy +18. Despite his lead in voter preference, however, Bill Blair has the approval of 3-in-10 (29%) and a net of +6. Blair’s approval is high among the young and those in lower income groups. Harris’s approval is common to slightly older groups and those slightly wealthier.

"Bill Blair is playing his cards very close to his chest, but we know from previous polling he’s popular in Scarborough and among Liberals, and Scarborough Southwest was a Liberal riding until the last election. Even then, the margin of victory was less than 2000 votes. He’ll be a star candidate for any party which woos him, but at this point his best fit is as a Liberal," said Forum Research President, Dr. Lorne Bozinoff.

Lorne Bozinoff, Ph.D. is the president and founder of Forum Research. He can be reached at lbozinoff@forumresearch.com or at (416) 960-9603.