Rob Ford nears 50% approval rating in new poll

Sep 26, 2013 | News

368px-Rob_Ford_Mayor

Toronto mayor Rob Ford. (Courtesy of WikiCommons)

By Sarah Stinchcombe

Rob Ford’s star is on the rise.

A new poll has found that 49 per cent of those surveyed in Toronto approved of the job Ford is doing as mayor. That’s a nearly ten per cent increase from a similar poll conducted a year ago.

Ford’s approval rating hit an all-time low of 37 per cent in October 2011.

Forum Research conducted a telephone poll of a random sampling of 1,082 Torontonians this past weekend. The poll was published Thursday in the Toronto Sun newspaper.

Lorne Bozioff, president of Forum Research, said the  mayor’s ratings boost may be attributed to the current transit debate.

“He is at a very high rating currently, almost the highest since his election. Especially in Scarborough, probably due to the subway announcement,” Bozioff told Humber New.

“It’s safe to say the handling of the subway card over the last week has played into the mayor’s favour, and it’s only contributed to his solid popularity,” said Bozioff in his most recent press release.

Nelson Wiseman, a professor of political science at the University of Toronto, said what the public hears about affects the polls.

“There hasn’t been a flurry of bad news surrounding Rob Ford recently,” said Wiseman. “The polls normally reflect with what people are seeing in the media.”

Wiseman added that telephone polls are not the most efficient way of hearing the general public’s opinion.

“A lot of people choose not to do the poll,” said Wiseman.

“I would not be surprised if people in a poor, less income situation would be more likely to respond than higher income people,” said Wiseman.

Wiseman said that monthly polls should not be used to predict the future of Ford.

“It’s too early for these polls to predict anything, given the next election is over a year away, many things could happen between then,” said Wiseman