Ford ‘fatigue’ may be taking hold as poll shows majority of Torontonians not satisfied with apology
Mayor Rob Ford’s apology on returning to office this week failed to impress nearly two-thirds of Torontonians and pushed the mayor back into third place in this fall’s mayoral race, a new poll suggests.
Mayor Rob Ford’s apology on returning to office this week failed to impress nearly two-thirds of Torontonians and pushed the mayor back into third place in this fall’s mayoral race, a new poll suggests.
The poll from Forum Research was conducted two days after Ford’s 17-minute speech June 30, of 1,182 Toronto voters.
The poll asked voters among other things whether they were satisfied with Ford’s apology and election speech following his return from two months in a Muskoka rehabilitation facility. 34 per cent said that they were, while 60 per cent were not and three per cent had no opinion.
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Ford’s position in the race for the Oct. 27 mayoral vote also slipped from the last poll on June 23, when he was ahead of John Tory and behind Olivia Chow.
Tory now edges ahead of Ford, with 27 per cent of the vote compared to Ford at 26 per cent. Chow leads with 36 per cent, while David Soknacki and Karen Stintz trail, with four per cent and three per cent respectively.
Should Ford drop out of the race, the numbers shift, giving Tory a slight edge over Chow.
On that matter, the Forum poll indicates that calls for the mayor to resign are up, from 58 per cent last week to 62 per cent this week.
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Most didn’t expect the mayor to be able to maintain his sobriety until the election, with only 25 per cent expecting him to do so. And only 32 per cent of those polled said the mayor should have his duties and responsibilities returned to him.
And the core Ford Nation vote — as measured by the question "Will you vote for Mayor Ford in the October 27 election or not?" - has declined slightly, to one quarter of voters from 29 per cent in the last poll.
Forum Research president Lorne Bozinoff said the poll shows that the mayor’s return didn’t generate the kind of bounce that one would expect.
"One would expect to see a "dead cat bounce" in his ratings created by the mayor’s return, but that has not been the case. On the other hand, we may be seeing the beginning of Ford Fatigue, in which the constant controversy is just being tuned out by most Toronto voters," said Bozinoff in a statement.
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