Poll shows that Rob Ford could beat Chow and Stintz thanks to the ice storm
Nobody’s sure how much leadership Rob Ford actually displayed during the aftermath of December’s ice storm, but whatever he did, it seems to have worked. A new poll conducted by Forum Research and published by the Sun shows his approval rating—which has, for the most part, been holding steady between 40 and 45 per cent for the past two and a half years—suddenly up around 47 per cent. That’s a five per cent improvement over last month. Somewhere in the mayor’s office, a junior staffer is adding one to the number on the “This Workplace Has Been Scandal-Free for X Days” sign.
The poll of 1,105 Toronto residents also found that Ford would win in hypothetical election match-ups with other presumed mayoral contenders, like Olivia Chow and TTC chair Karen Stintz. According to Forum, Ford would even win if John Tory, the perennial conservative dream candidate, were to enter the race. This directly contradicts previous Forum polls, which tended to predict Chow as the winner. This latest poll also seemingly contradicts a December Ipsos Reid poll, which found that 61 per cent of Torontonians wouldn’t even consider voting for Ford.
Obviously, polls conducted this long before election day are unreliable. A momentary shift in Ford’s numbers says almost nothing about his chances of winning in October. What is clear, at the very least, is that he still has a shot at reelection, lies and crack be damned.
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