A new poll of nearly 1,400 Torontonians shows that a week filled with drug allegations and vehement denials hasn’t changed Mayor Rob Ford’s election prospects — he’d still lose to Olivia Chow.In a one-on-one match-up between NDP MP Olivia Chow and the mayor, Chow wins with more than half the vote, 56 per cent, to about a third for the mayor (36 per cent), according to a poll released Sunday by Forum Research Inc.
That result is nearly unchanged from the result of a poll conducted May 10.
In a three-way contest between the mayor, Chow, and radio host John Tory, Chow wins with 42 per cent of the vote to about 27 per cent for Ford and 24 per cent for Tory.
That, too, is almost identical to the May 10 finding.
“It looks like the Ford Nation seems to be a pretty loyal group of supporters. Unless the issue deals directly with the performance of his duties, these things don’t seem to impact his popularity,” Forum Research president Lorne Bozinoff said in an interview.
“Although he still doesn’t beat Olivia Chow in the trial heats, his recent troubles have had absolutely no effect on his electoral prospects.”
Similarly, Ford’s popularity was unaffected last year when a Toronto businessman attempted to sue him for libel, Bozinoff noted. The court dismissed the $6 million lawsuit.
“Rob Ford is really both the Teflon and Kevlar Mayor – nothing sticks to him and nothing penetrates his armour,” Bozinoff said in a news release.
The survey also found that in a three-way match-up among Ford, Chow, and TTC chair Karen Stintz, Chow wins with 42 per cent of the vote, with 34 per cent for the mayor, and 16 per cent for Stintz. Once again, the results are nearly identical to the poll taken earlier this month.
A front page article published by the Globe and Mail on Saturday alleged that the mayor’s brother Councillor Doug Ford was a successful hashish dealer for several years in Etobicoke during the 1980s.
The Star has not verified the allegations.
Doug Ford denied the reports, calling them “disgusting” and an “outright lie.”
The latest Forum Research poll was conducted the day before the Globe and Mail report was published, Bozinoff noted.
Rob Ford ended a week-long silence on Friday by making a statement to media about a video in which he appears to smoke crack cocaine.
Two Toronto Star reporters and an editor at New York-based website Gawker have watched the video, purportedly shot in Toronto by drug dealers who wanted to sell it for a six-figure sum.
The Forum Research poll is based on results from an interactive voice response telephone survey of 1,395 randomly selected Torontonians ages 18 and older. It was conducted on May 24.
Results are considered accurate within three percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
“This research is not necessarily predictive of future outcomes, but rather, captures opinion at one point in time,” Forum noted in its release. Reported by Toronto Star 6 hours ago.