Toronto Mayoralty Race All But Locked Up By Incumbent Miller As Campaign Gap Widens Over Challenger Pitfield After Month Of Campaigning

Toronto, ON - Mayor David Miller appears poised to romp to victory for his second term as Torontonians give him a wide margin of support over his high profiled challengers, Toronto City Councilor Jane Pitfield and former President of the Liberal Party of Canada, Stephen LeDrew, according to a new poll released today by CanWest Global and CFRB.

The latest polling, conducted over this past weekend among a representative sample of 802 Torontonians shows that, among decided voters, Mayor Miller has 70% of the committed vote to 29% for Ms. Pitfield. Latecomer Stephen LeDrew, former President of the Federal Liberal Party who declared his intention to seek the Mayor's office during the last hour that nominations were opened, has had virtually no impact on the race as only 1% of decided voters indicated they would back his election. Among those decided voters who indicate that they are absolutely certain to vote on Election Day , the gap is a little smaller but the Mayor still has the commanding support of almost two thirds (63%) versus 35% for Ms. Pitfield, and 2% for Mr. LeDrew.

The first poll done for the election campaign and released by CanWest Global and CFRB on September 29, 2006 showed a potentially tight horse race -- with the overall vote for incumbent Mayor David Miller (55%) and Toronto City Councilor Jane Pitfield (40%), and more importantly, the vote among those actually most likely to turn-out making the vote even closer -- for Miller 51% and Pitfield 46%.

It's clear that Torontonians have the had opportunity to evaluate the major candidates over the last month as the campaign has focused on the issues through the media and a number of public debates, and they've pretty well made up their mind that the incumbent mayor should be returned to office -- this time for four years under the new terms of office as decided by the Government of Ontario for all municipal office holders across the province.

The last month has also provided Torontonians with a good scrutiny of the candidates -- as of this past weekend, 57% view Mr. Miller favorably versus 27% who voice an unfavorable opinion (+30 momentum), compared with Ms. Pitfield at 33% favorability versus 25% who have an unfavorable opinion of her (+8 momentum), and Mr. LeDrew who has a favorable opinion among 12% and an unfavorable view held by 24% (-12 momentum). [Total percentages don't equal 100 as there are notable proportions who either had never heard of the candidates or indicated that they "don't know"]

Among Those Who Have Contacted Their City Council Member: 58% Say Their Member's Response/Actions Were Satisfactory (41% Say It Was Unsatisfactory)....

Among all Torontonians, 31% have contacted their City Council member about an issue they wanted addressed or needed done -most (68%), however, have never done so.

Among those who have contacted their City Councilor member, 58% indicate that their member responded and acted upon their request in a satisfactory manner versus 41% who say that their member's response was unsatisfactory.

And, looking ahead to the upcoming election, more feel that the new City Council will be made up of members that "will get bogged down with petty politics and grandstanding" (47%) rather than "get the process of government working"(43%).

These are the findings of an Ipsos Reid poll conducted from November 2nd to 5th, 2006. For this survey, a representative randomly selected sample of 802 residents of Toronto was interviewed by telephone. With a sample of this size, the aggregate results are considered accurate to within +/-3.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what they would have been had the entire population of Toronto been polled. The margin of error will be larger within each sub-grouping of the survey population. These data were weighted to ensure the sample's regional and age/sex composition reflects that of the actual population of Toronto according to Census data.

For more information or to schedule a media interview, please contact:

John Wright
Senior Vice President
Ipsos Reid Publc Affairs
(416) 324-2900
[email protected]

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