Four in Ten (39%) Torontonians Agree They Would Rather Vote For Miller Than Any of the Other Candidates Running to Replace Him

Toronto, ON - A new poll conducted for Global Television, NewsTalk 1010 and the National Post reveals that the race for mayor might be drastically different if current incumbent David Miller were in the race, as four in ten (39%) Torontonians `agree' (18% strongly/22% somewhat) that they would `rather vote for outgoing Mayor David Miller than any of the candidates running to replace him'. Conversely, six in ten (58%) would likely vote for some other candidate even if Miller were in the race, `disagreeing' (42% strongly/16% somewhat) that they would rather vote for Miller.

With Miller out of the race, many Torontonians do not appear to be thrilled with the candidates that are running for mayor, as six in ten (59%) `agree' (25% strongly/34% somewhat) that they `fear for the future of Toronto given the candidates they have to choose among for mayor'. Just four in ten (37%) `disagree' (14% strongly/23% somewhat) that they fear for Toronto given the candidates running for mayor.

Rob Ford beats out the other candidates as the man Torontonians believe would make the best Mayor of Toronto. Regardless of who they're voting for, three in ten (27%) Torontonians believe that, if elected, Rob Ford would do the best job of running Toronto's government, more than the proportion who believe George Smitherman (19%), Sarah Thomson (8%), Joe Pantalone (8%), or Rocco Rossi (7%) would do the best job. Three in ten (28%) don't know or believe that none of these candidates would do the best job running City Hall.

Ipsos Reid's poll released yesterday revealed that Ford (32%) is well ahead of his next-closest competitor, George Smitherman (21%) in the vote to be mayor, despite his recent campaign troubles. And while currently in the lead, Rob Ford appears to be the most divisive candidate running for mayor, as one quarter (24%) of Torontonians say they'd never vote for Ford, higher than the proportion who says the same about Smitherman (22%), Pantalone (11%), Thomson (9%), or Rossi (7%). Nearly two in ten (15%) Torontonians, though, wouldn't rule out any of these candidates. One in ten (12%) don't know who they'd never consider voting for in this contest for Mayor.

These are the findings of an Ipsos Reid poll conducted on behalf of Global Television, NewsTalk 1010 and the National Post from August 20-22, 2010. For the survey, a representative randomly-selected sample of 400 adults living in Toronto was interviewed by telephone. With a sample of this size, the results are considered accurate to within 1774.9 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what they would have been had the entire adult population of Toronto proper been polled. The margin of error will be larger within regions and for other sub-groupings of the survey population. These data were weighted to ensure that the sample's regional and age/sex composition reflects that of the actual Toronto population according to Census data. All sample surveys and polls may be subject to other sources of error, including, but not limited to coverage error, and measurement error.

For more information on this news release, please contact:
John Wright
Senior Vice President
Ipsos Reid Public Affairs
(416) 324-2002
[email protected]

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