Lastman Juggernaut Riding High In Election Year

84% of Torontonians Approve of Mayor's Overall Performance

28 February 2000

On Specific Issues, Mayor Receives No Less than 69% Approval

80% Say the Toronto Municipal Council Is On the Right Track

Toronto, Ontario -- According to the results of an Angus Reid/CFRB/Globe and Mail/Global Television poll conducted among 600 residents of the City of Toronto, Torontonians overwhelmingly approve of the performance of Mayor Mel Lastman. More than eight in ten (84%) Torontonians say they approve (37% strongly, 47% somewhat) of Mel Lastman's overall performance as Mayor. Even on specific issues, Mayor Lastman enjoys approval ratings that would be the envy of many politicians, with no rating lower than 69 percent. As a whole, 80 percent of Torontonians feel that City Council is on the "right track".

These are the findings of an Angus Reid/CFRB/Globe and Mail/Global Television poll conducted between February 15th and February 20th 2000. The poll is based on a randomly selected sample of 600 adult residents of the City of Toronto. The results are within 1774.0 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what they would have been had the entire population of the City of Toronto been polled. The margin of error will be larger within regions and for other sub-groupings of the survey population. These data were statistically weighted to ensure the sample's regional and age/sex composition reflects that of the actual population of the City of Toronto according to the 1996 Census data.

84% of Torontonians Approve of Mayor's Overall Performance
After over two years in office and on the cusp of an election, an overwhelming number of Torontonians approve of Mayor Mel Lastman's overall performance. More than eight in ten (84%) Torontonians say that they approve of Mel Lastman's overall performance as Mayor of Toronto (up from 80% in a publicly released Angus Reid poll conducted in June 1999). Over one-third (37%) of those surveyed say that they "strongly approve" of his performance while almost a majority (47%) say they "moderately approve". Only 14 percent say they disapprove of Mayor Lastman's performance including 10 percent who "moderately disapprove" and 4 percent who "strongly disapprove". Mel Lastman's overall approval rating (84%) is 13 points above the approval rating for the Toronto City Council as a whole (71%) and the percentage of Torontonians who "strongly approve" of Mel Lastman (37%) is 4.5 times the percentage who "strongly approve" of City Council (8%).

Residents with a household income of $60,000 or less (86%) are more likely to approve of Mayor Lastman's performance than residents with a household income greater than $60,000 (82%).
Mayor Lastman's support is equally strong across all age categories, between men and women and among renters and owners.
Mayor Lastman's support is strong even among those who did not vote for him in the 1997 municipal election. Sixty-five percent of those residents who supported Barbara Hall say they approve of Mel Lastman's performance. Among his own supporters, Mel Lastman receives an overall approval rating of 97 percent.

On Specific Issues, Mayor Receives No Less than 69% Approval
Mayor Lastman's strong overall approval rating carries over to his approval rating on specific issues. On every issue tested, Mayor Lastman receives very high approval from Torontonians. He receives his highest approval rating (83%) on "making Toronto a world class city". His lowest approval rating is for "protecting and enhancing social services" but is still very high at 69 percent.

Issue	Total Approval
Issue	Feb 2000	June 1999	Oct 1998
Base: 416 residents	600	628	628
Attracting business and investment to the new Toronto	82%	80%	74%
Holding the line on municipal property taxes	72%	71%	65%
Fighting crime and ensuring the New Toronto is safe	73%	79%	72%
Protecting and enhancing social services	69%	68%	60%
Working with local politicians and bureaucrats to get the New Toronto running smoothly	81%	79%	72%
Ensuring strong support for culture and recreation in Toronto	82%	85%	78%
Maintaining our streets and roads	75%	74%	75%
Maintaining the quality of municipal services such as garbage collection	82%	79%	83%
Providing strong leadership on tough issues	81%	77%	74%
Making Toronto a world class city	83%	82%	77%
Providing honest and trustworthy government	81%	75%	71%
Representing all of the New city of Toronto	80%	78%	73%

Mayor Lastman's approval rating on fighting crime has decreased 6 points since June 1999.
Mayor Lastman's approval rating on providing honest and trustworthy government has increased 6 points since June 1999.

80% say the Toronto Municipal Council is on the right track
Overall, 80 percent of Torontonians say that since being elected in 1997 the Toronto City Council is on the "right track" in terms of where it is taking the new City of Toronto.