Tory's
approval as mayor is sky high
Rob Ford's approval highest since spring
TORONTO DECEMBER
18th, 2014 - In
a random sampling of public opinion taken by the Forum Poll™ among 1001 Toronto
voters, fully three quarters approve of the job John Tory is doing as mayor
(74%), and this is the highest mayoral approval we have measured, surpassing
Rob Ford's rating of 60% just after the 2010 mayoral election. This compares to
an approval rating for Tory of one half (53%) taken one month after the
election (November 25). Tory's approval is highest among the older (55 to 64 -
83%, 65+ - 82%), mid to high income groups ($40K to $60K - 80%, $60K to $80K -
81%), the best educated (post grad - 82%), in the old city of York (87%), among
those in neighbourhoods wealthier than others (81%) and those getting more
wealthy (80%) and, logically, those who approve of the SmartTrack transit plan
(91%).
Rob Ford's approval highest since spring
Rob
Ford has the approval of close to half (45%) and this is reminiscent of his
approval ratings back in April, 2014, and sharply higher than the approval
rating noted one month after the recent election (November 25 - 36%). Ford's
approval is especially characteristic of the youngest (51%), the least wealthy
(less than $20K - 62%, $20K to $40K - 58%, $40K to $60K - 51%), in North York
(52%) and Scarborough (55%), those who drive rather than use transit (52%),
renters (53%), the least educated (68%), mothers of children under 18 (54%) and
in neighbourhoods which are (61%) or are getting less wealthy than others
(62%).
Doug Ford's approval same as during campaign
Doug
Ford maintains a strong approval rating of just more than 4-in-10 (43%), which
is comparable to his approval during his short campaign for mayor. Doug's
approval follows the same socioeconomic patterns and is characteristic of the
same groups as his brother's.
Strong majority call for term limits
Close
to 6-in-10 approve of term limits for the mayor (57%) and even more call for
councillor term limits (60%), and these findings are reminiscent of the last
time we asked this question (September 2013 - 59% and 63%, respectively).
"John Tory's extremely high
approval rating is a novelty for Toronto; we've never seen that many citizens
agree on their admiration for a chief magistrate before. This is most likely
because they have had such a low bar set for their approval for the last 4
years," 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.
