Toronto Mayor Rob Ford talks with political ally councillor Giorgio Mammoliti during a committee meeting on the city's waterfront plans Sep. 6, 2011 at City Hall.Moe Doiron/The Globe and Mail
A sweeping new poll suggests a broad majority of Torontonians are rejecting Mayor Rob Ford's service-cutting budget talks, even in wards that carried him to victory last year in his "gravy train" campaign against City Hall spending.
After weeks of talk about layoffs, the future of libraries and public transit service reductions, the mayor's popularity has plummeted, with only 27 per cent of respondents ready to vote for Mr. Ford if a municipal election was held now, says the survey conducted by Forum Research.
More than three quarters of those contacted by the pollster thought their councillors should ignore Mr. Ford's budgetary proposals and oppose service reductions.
The poll was commissioned by one of the main unions representing municipal employees, CUPE Local 79.
The automated survey of 12,848 Toronto residents took place Tuesday, using a push-button response system. Forum Research said the margin of error for a poll if that size is 0.9 per cent, 19 out 20 times.
While some rival pollsters have cautioned about results from automated polling (also known as IVR – interactive voice response – polling), Forum Research president Lorne Bozinoff said he was confident about the survey's results.
"We've done parallel testing of telephone vs. IVR and found no significant difference in the findings," he said in an e-mail.
The poll found that:
- 77 per cent agreed or strongly agreed that their councillor should vote to protect services rather than heed the mayor's wishes.
- 27 per cent said they would vote for Mr. Ford as mayor if elections were held tomorrow, while 60 per cent said they wouldn't vote him.
- 54 per cent said their opinion of the mayor grown worse, 29 per cent said their perception of him hadn't changed and 17 per cent said their opinion of Mr. Ford had improved.
The discontent isn't limited to Ford-averse zones like the city's centre or the Beaches.
In the mayor's old ward – Etobicoke North, now held by his brother Doug – 64 per cent voted for Mr. Ford in the last election. Now only 45 per cent would cast a ballot for him again, a significant drop, even within the 6 per cent margin of error for results in that specific ward.
Also, 65 per cent wanted Doug Ford to vote to protect services.
In Ward 7, York West, represented by Ford ally Giorgio Mammoliti, 75 per cent want the councillor to protect services.
In budget chief Mike Del Grande's Ward 39, Scarborough-Agincourt, 74 per cent opposed service cuts. While 55 per cent voted for Mr. Ford in the last election, support has now dropped to 42 per cent (the margin of error for ward 39 is 8 per cent).
Tu Thanh Ha