Rivals perform better than Mayor Ford: Ipsos Reid poll
Posted November 14, 2013 8:41 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The road to next year’s municipal elections appears long and bumpy for Mayor Rob Ford and his prospects for re-election look bleak, according to the latest poll by Ipsos Reid.
On Nov. 5, the embattled mayor admitted to using crack cocaine after police said they have recovered the video of him allegedly smoking crack. He has apologized for his behaviour but refuses to take a leave of absence even though councillors voted 37-5 in a non-binding motion on Wednesday that he do so. He also vowed at that meeting to run for re-election on Oct. 27, 2014.
Ipsos-Reid tested four scenarios with various candidates, declared or likely, to see how Ford would do against them, and the mayor fails to win or come close in any of them.
In a three-way race, TTC chair Karen Stintz would win against Ford and former councillor David Soknacki. The vote would be 52 per cent for Stintz, 33 per cent for Ford and 14 per cent for Soknacki.
Both Stintz and Soknacki have said they’d run for mayor next year.
If John Tory were added to the mix, the former PC leader would win with 41 per cent of support against Stintz (30 per cent), Ford (22 per cent) and Soknacki (7 per cent). Tory, who ran unsuccessfully for mayor against David Miller in 2003 and withdrew his name from the 2010 race against Ford, said he hasn’t made up his mind whether to run.
If MP Olivia Chow were to run instead of Tory, she would beat Ford with 44 per cent support.
If all five people ran in a race, Chow would win with 36 per cent of votes against Tory (28 per cent), Ford (20 per cent), Stintz (13 per cent) and Soknacki (3 per cent).
The poll also indicated that 62 per cent agree there’s no way they’d consider voting for Ford for mayor. Four in 10 disagreed that they would rule out voting for him.
While many appear to take issue with his personal problems, they don’t necessarily disagree with his policies, the pollster said.
Nearly half of those polled said they agree with what Ford is doing at city hall, while 53 per cent disagree.
The online survey of 665 Torontonians was conducted between Nov. 8 and 12 and has an accuracy of plus or minus 4.3 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
