“Undecided” polling way ahead of all mayoral candidates; race gripped by meh fever

“Undecided” polling way ahead of all mayoral candidates; race gripped by meh fever

The six leading candidates for mayor (not pictured: Undecided)

A pair of polls have come out that show the mayoral race tightening up—but only if one includes actual candidates. Rob Ford and George Smitherman are essentially be tied for second, but dark horse candidate “Undecided” is leading by a landslide, according to a Nanos poll (showing 32 per cent of likely voters undecided) and a survey commissioned by the Star (showing 44 per cent undecided).

The Globe and Mail reports:

A new Globe and Mail/CTV/CP24/Nanos poll puts Mr. Ford in first place, edging out Mr. Smitherman, who left his provincial post as deputy premier and energy infrastructure minister to run. The lead, however, is quite slim – 17.8 per cent of the 1,000 Torontonians polled said they would vote for Mr. Ford if the election were held immediately, compared with 15.9 per cent for Mr. Smitherman – and well within the margin of error of 3.1 per cent, 19 times out of 20.

As the Globe‘s Marcus Gee puts it, “George Smitherman gave up the No. 2 spot in the government of Canada’s most populous province to run for mayor. Now he finds himself running second to this guy.”

The only person who is having a worse day than George Smitherman is Rocco Rossi, who started strong but is now running fourth or fifth depending the poll. On the other hand, the Star gave a Monday morning smile to John Tory, finding that he’d beat both the runners-up and leave Undecided well behind him.

• Mayoral race: Rob Ford catches up to George Smitherman [Toronto Star]
• Nanos Poll [Nanos Research—PDF]
• Gee: One-note Ford is resonating with voters [Globe and Mail]
• Poll puts Ford ahead of Smitherman [Globe and Mail]
• ‘Fiscally responsible’ Ford edges over competition in mayoral race [CP24]

Images: garbage strike, Martin Reis from the Torontolife.com Flickr pool; Pantalone, Mammoliti, Ford, toronto.ca; Rossi, Rocco Rossi; Smitherman, OldTownGuy; Thomson, Joey Schwartz.