Majority approve end of carding

| Filed under: Toronto

Majority approve end of carding

Majority think carding ineffective

TORONTO November 16th - In a random sampling of public opinion taken by the Forum Poll™ among 812 Toronto voters, more than half approve of the provincial government’s decision to ban carding (55%), while 3-in-10 disapprove of this decision (29%). Disapproval is characteristic of the mid aged (45 to 54 - 39%, 55 to 64 - 36%), males (35%), mid to lower income groups ($40K to $60K - 35%), in Scarborough (48%), among those who voted Doug Ford for mayor last year (48%), those with a European background other than the British Isles (44%), but not among black voters (4% - caution: very small base).


One half sees carding as ineffective

One half of Toronto voters do not see carding as effective at preventing crime (49%), and this is especially the case among the youngest (62%), the wealthy ($80K to $100K - 58%), in the downtown/East York (55%), Olivia Chow voters (68%) and black voters (70% - caution: very small base). Three -in-ten see carding as an effective crime prevention tool (29%). These findings represent stasis on this issue since the last time we polled this in May (May 6, effective - 27%, ineffective - 52%).


Approvals for Tory, Saunders, Ford up

Mayor John Tory has the approval of an unprecedentedly high 8-in-10 voters (77%), up from three quarters in the summer (August 2 - 72%). Chief Mark Saunders has also seen his approvals increase, from less than half (45%) in August to more than half now (52%). Councilor Rob Ford has seen his approval increase sharply, from about one third in August (34%) to close to 4-in-10 now (38%).



“The Toronto Police are not winning their public relations battles. They wanted to retain carding as a law enforcement tool, but the public clearly doesn’t agree. The one bright spot for them in this poll is that Chief Saunders remains well-liked. And we believe the boost in favourability for Rob Ford is largely due to the unfortunate recurrence of his cancer,” 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.