Today Fri Sat
It is forcast to be Fog at 11:00 PM EDT on May 24, 2012
Fog
29°/18°		 It is forcast to be Chance of Rain at 11:00 PM EDT on May 25, 2012
Chance of Rain
31°/18°		 It is forcast to be Overcast at 11:00 PM EDT on May 26, 2012
Overcast
26°/15°

14 Comments

news

New Ipsos-Reid Poll Shows Smitherman Now Pulling Ahead of Ford

By Steve Kupferman

An Ipsos-Reid poll commissioned for Newstalk 1010, which was made public just moments ago, gives George Smitherman a slight lead over Rob Ford. Smitherman has the votes of 31% of respondents, according to Newstalk, while Rob Ford is close behind, with 30%. Pantalone and Rossi are far in back, with 11% and 4% respectively. Among those most likely to vote, Smitherman comes in at 38%, while Ford has just 32%. Roughly one quarter of respondents remain undecided.

Comments

  • http://undefined Matthew

    Let me start a cheer/chant:
    Not. The. Worst.
    Not. The. Worst.
    Not. The. Worst.
    Not. The. Worst.
    Not. The. Worst.
    wooo…

  • http://undefined uskyscraper

    The unsolicited view from New York:
    People are absolute fools if you vote for Ford. I’m picturing a North American mayor’s conference where Bloomberg, Daley and Villaraigosa put Ford at the children’s table so that the adults can talk serious policy.
    NY has its own Ford-Smitherman race; it’s called Paladino-Cuomo. But at least in that case Wacky Carl “Hates Toronto Gay Pride Parades” Paladino has no chance of winning. It’s pure entertainment and lets angry taxpayers vent off some steam without actually endangering their futures. That’s what the Toronto race should have been.
    Not so long ago NY looked to Toronto for leadership — see bit.ly/dzfa3B. Now, we’re laughing at you. Ford thinks he should kill streetcars while dozens of US cities, like New York, are trying to put them back into service. And don’t get me started on the bike lanes and pedestrian plazas you see all over American cities now (and Montreal and Vancouver for that matter).
    Miller was not bad on the bigger stage. I understand he drove all of you crazy with nuts and bolts stuff like user fees, union matters and other local issues. But his larger urban policies were reasonably intelligent and on par with what you read was going on in places like Chicago, Portland, Seattle, San Francisco, New York, Boston, DC, LA, etc. Don’t throw it away and go back a grade to hang out with the Clevelands and Buffalos and Detroits…
    Toronto should be leading, not hiding with its head in the sand. Vote Ford at your peril.

  • http://www.torontoist.com David Topping

    My sincere condolences to Rocco Rossi, incidentally.

  • http://undefined Nathan

    + 1
    Ford would set this city back 10 years.

  • CanadianSkeezix

    Seriously. The man spends most of the campaign uttering complete nonsense (the undemocratic nature of the Jarvis bike lanes, voter recall, etc.), finally starts to talk some sense (a financial plan identified by more than one pundit as being the only one that is realistic among all the mayoral candidates), and his meagre polling numbers drop even further. Maybe he should start to foam at the mouth again.

  • http://flickr.com/aged_accozzaglia accozzaglia

    Uh, Flounder flounders?
    Nah, couldn’t be.

  • http://flickr.com/aged_accozzaglia accozzaglia

    Fifty-seven years.

  • W. K. Lis

    With Pantalone at 11% and Rossi at 4%, they don’t have a chance. Better to cast your vote strategically and put your vote to good use. Don’t do a Nader and end up with someone worse than want you wanted overall.

  • http://undefined avp77

    I’m not sure I can bring myself to vote for Smitherman. His previous record and the way he presents himself just give me a great feeling of unease. Casting a vote for him feels like entrusting the keys of your house while on vacation to the same guy that already broke in a couple of times.
    Say what you want about either Ford or Pantalone, I get the impression that they both believe in what they say, and have acted, and continue to act, on what they see as the truth. I’m not sure Smitherman knows what the truth is. In my ideal world, Smitherman would withdraw, and we’d have a stark choice with two main candidates with clear agendas.

  • http://www.michaeljeremybrown.ca/ Michael Brown

    In my ideal world, Ford would withdraw, and we’d have a choice of 3 solid candidates with clear agendas.

  • http://undefined W. K. Lis

    With Ford out of the race, I would probably not vote for Smitherman.

  • http://flickr.com/aged_accozzaglia accozzaglia

    Awwwwh, a little, six-mil libel suit, a dodgy track record, and a foul mind won’t stop Flounder from fight-fight-fighting his way to his ultimate (and pre-destined) victory as Toronto’s next worship. All those council outbursts were just a sneak peek for the real deal.
    Or something like that.

  • http://undefined Mary)82

    I just wish that Pantalone would win. I’m not huge into Smitherman but he seems to be the lesser of the two evils. If Ford wins I will cry.

  • http://flickr.com/aged_accozzaglia accozzaglia

    I would go so far as to propose that Ford is the genuine spoiler in this election. His role in this has turned the relevance of the election’s content and mandate from actual, pertinent issues to a referendum on how much people hate or love him.
    This is why it’s a shame that the only working alternative right now is the questionable track record of Smitherman over pitch-and-whinefest who just got the “FOUL” rating on this morning’s Smell Test. He pretty much made his case for being mayoral on this point, and now its legitimacy is called into quantitative question.
    In short, this really should have come down to a two-on decision between Pantalone and Smitherman — a no-confidence vote on the last seven years of policy direction versus a right-directed agenda.
    Meanwhile, Flounder flails and gets all borscht-red.