Torontonians Outline Most Important Issues to Mayoral Candidates: Taxpayers Money at City Hall Adds Up
Toronto, ON - Torontonians appear to have a lot of issues they want the candidates for Mayor to tackle but when the issues are categorized there's one that clearly stands out beyond the others according to a new Ipsos Reid poll conducted on behalf of Global Television, NewsTalk 1010 and the National Post.
On the individual issue score, nearly two in ten (16%) believe that transit/transportation is the most important issue that the candidates for mayor should be focused on, while others believe that the city budget/debt/deficit (10%), high taxes (9%), economy/jobs (8%), spending/waste (5%), crime (3%), road construction/repair (3%), traffic/congestion (2%), education (2%), social services (1%), the environment (1%), business development (1%) or some other issue (27%) should be the issue on which the candidates should be focused.
But when "budget/debt/deficit (10%), high taxes (9%), economy/jobs (8%), spending/waste (5%)" are all added together - all about taxpayers money at city hall -- it's the #1 issue at 32%.
And perhaps tapping into that issue category and reflecting it in his campaign mantra, three in ten (27%) Torontonians believe that Rob Ford has the best plan for changing Toronto for the better, well ahead of the 16% of people that think George Smitherman has the best plans for changing the city for the better. Others feel that Sarah Thomson (9%), Joe Pantalone (7%) or Rocco Rossi (6%) may have the best plan, but one in three (35%) say they don't know who has the best plan.
The poll also revealed that just two in ten (17%) Torontonians are following the events associated with the candidates and their run for mayor `very closely', while most are following the events `somewhat closely' (42%), or `not very closely' (21%). Two in ten (20%) admit that they're `not following the race closely at all'.
Despite the apparent lack of interest at this point in the race, most Torontonians say they'll tune in soon with a majority (56%) `agreeing' (23% strongly/33% somewhat) that they `have not started to really seriously pay attention to the candidates for mayor and their campaigns, but will after Labour Day'. Four in ten (42%) `disagree' (23% strongly/18% somewhat) that they're not yet paying attention and will do so after Labour Day.
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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