Soknacki-style plan least popular
TORONTO AUGUST 26th, 2014 -
In a random sampling of public opinion taken by the Forum Poll™ among 1945
Toronto voters, one half approved of a transit plan incorporating most of Mayor
Ford's proposals ("Replacing the east end of the Eglinton Crosstown LRT
with a subway, building the Scarborough subway and then building the Downtown
Relief Line, paid for by public-private partnerships, the province and the
federal government" - 50%). After this plan, equal proportions, just more
than 4-in-10, approved of a plan similar to John Tory's ("Giving priority
to the Scarborough subway, followed by running subway trains on existing GO
Transit track, paid for with development charges on new development along the
GO Transit routes" - 45%) and one similar to Olivia Chow's plan
("Giving priority to adding more buses to existing routes, followed by
building an LRT in Scarborough, then the Downtown Relief Line, paid for with
the Scarborough subway tax" - 45%). Just 4-in-10 approve of David
Soknacki's adherence to the city's original LRT-based transit plan
("Following the original Transit City plan, including LRTs in Scarborough,
on Finch and Sheppard and on the Eglinton Crosstown, paid for by a combination
of development charges, private-public partnerships and tax increases" -
39%).
"Subways, subways, subways still
steal the limelight, and it doesn't help that Soknacki's plan doesn't shy away
from discussing taxation as a way of paying for it. Subways are bright shiny objects, especially
when they're offered for free," 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.
