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.
