Poll results show Rob Ford’s support lower than ever

Absence has not made the voters’ hearts grow fonder in the case of Rob Ford, according to a new poll. The latest Forum Research poll says the Toronto mayor’s approval rating has reached a historic low, his support continuing to drop as he remains absent from the campaign trail while receiving treatment in a rehab facility. Based on an automated telephone survey of 944 randomly selected Torontonians, conducted June 6, the poll found that only 28 per cent of respondents approved of Ford, the lowest the firm had recorded since he was elected in 2010. The poll suggests he is “no longer a contender in any of the tested mayoral matchups.” Mayoral candidate John Tory led the approval ratings with 68 per cent, followed by Olivia Chow at 64 per cent; David Socknacki sits at 54 per cent and Karen Stinz at 48 per cent. As to how the respondents say they’d vote, in a five-way race, Chow wins with 38 per cent, followed by Tory with 28 per cent, Ford with 20 per cent, Socknacki at 5 per cent and Stinz at 4 per cent.

The low Ford results may be explained by a campaign that has appeared to have stalled as the mayor gets treatment for his addictions, perhaps further hindered by the litany of negative stories that continue to come out about the mayor’s behaviour pre-rehab.

“He’s survived, really, just incident after incident, he really was the Teflon man for quite a while, we saw that,” says Lorne Bozinoff, president of Forum Research. “Whereas in the past, people would say, ‘Well, that’s his private life, we like what he did in terms of taxes and privatization of garbage’ or whatever. We can look past his private life, but the private life got too ridiculous. And that’s why you are seeing that erosion of support.”

Bozinoff says he would “never say never” about any politician’s chances, but the results show that Ford’s support continues to drop as he remains absent, and he has a lot of work to do to get back into contention.