
The results of a new Liaison Strategies survey released today indicate that Mayor Olivia Chow has an early lead among decided voters ahead of this October’s municipal election.
Chow currently boasts a 13-point lead over Councillor Brad Bradford, who is considered to be her fiercest competition.
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If the election were to take place now, according to the poll, Chow would take 50 per cent of the vote, followed by Bradford at 37 per cent.
“The mayor has a positive approval rating, and despite being much less known than the mayor, Bradford has a positive favourability rating,” David Valentin, principal at Liaison Strategies said in a statement accompanying the results.
“That being said, Chow leads by double digits, though it is still very early. Bradford understandably does better with voters who know him (as opposed to those who don’t), so it will be interesting to see how numbers shift as he becomes better known.”
Toronto’s mayoral election will be held on October 26. While Bradford stated his intention to run last year, Mayor Chow has not yet said whether she plans to seek re-election.
Carly Lewis is a journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times and the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Wired, Interview Magazine, Pitchfork, Elle, and Maclean’s, where she is a contributing editor. Her work has been recognized by the National Magazine Awards and the Digital Publishing Awards. She reports on city life, culture—including what people do online—politics, art and crime. She received the Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award for “The Murder of Ashley Wadsworth,” an investigative feature about a Canadian teenager who was killed by a man she met on social media, published by Maclean’s.