Tory's approval as mayor is sky high

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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.