Mayor John Tory's approval rating remains high: poll
A new poll by Forum Research puts the mayor's approval rating at 65 per cent, just two points down from last month.

TheStar.com
Feb. 23, 2015
Sean Wetselaar

Mayor John Tory’s approval rating remains steady and strong according to a recent Forum poll.

The data, collected as Tory was in the midst of handling city skating rink closures and attending the vigil for toddler Elijah Marsh, found 65 per cent of respondents approve of how the mayor is doing his job. That’s down just two points from a Jan. 25 poll that put it at 67 per cent.

Tory’s approval exceeds Rob Ford’s as a city councillor by 20 points (Ford’s approval rating sits at 45 per cent), and there is an equal gap in preference for mayor (Tory is preferred by 54 per cent versus 34 per cent for Ford).

Tory’s strongest supporters remain the city’s older and wealthier residents who dwell mostly downtown. Ford remains stronger among middle-aged, less-wealthy residents living outside the downtown core.

“Mayor Tory is maintaining remarkably high approval scores, especially as we are well past the honeymoon period, and he has already made some difficult decisions,” Forum Research president Lorne Bozinoff said in a statement Sunday.

“His quick action to keep the outdoor rinks open and the vigil for Elijah Marsh occurred during our field period, and that’s the kind of thing citizens like to see their mayor doing.”

Though the city had initially planned to close 35 of its outdoor skating rinks Sunday due to budgetary constraints, a private sponsorship from Maple Leaf Sports Entertainment and Green for Life Environmental was able to keep 12 of those rinks open until March 22, with a donation of $200,000.

Tory spokesperson Amanda Galbraith said in a statement that the sponsorship was unsolicited but would give families more chances to get out and enjoy the rinks.

City staff are doing due diligence, reviewing relevant rules and policies regarding the sponsorship, “as was the case with sponsorship agreements last year,” she said.

“Bottom line, kids will be skating on more rinks on Monday and through to March break,” Galbraith said. “That's a ‎win for the City of Toronto.”

The poll also found relatively low approval for a sales tax in the city — less than a quarter of those surveyed approved of the tax initially. After it was explained that such a tax, suggested by city manager Joe Pennachetti, would be used to balance the city budget and help pay for fixing infrastructure such as water mains, that number rose, but only to 39 per cent, while 50 per cent still disapproved. Around one-tenth had no opinion in both cases.