The latest election poll shows front-runner Rob Ford has made significant gains in his quest for the mayor's seat.

The Nanos poll, commissioned by CP24, CTV and the Globe and Mail, puts Ford in the lead of the Toronto mayoralty race with 45.8 per cent of decided voters –- 24 points ahead of his biggest rival George Smitherman.

"We're just being very, very humble," Ford said upon hearing the results. "I'm working very hard."

Smitherman, who has been trailing Ford almost from the start, now has 21.3 per cent of support from decided voters.

"Rob Ford continues to be the comparatively more likely choice among likely voters," the Nanos research file notes. "The intensity of his support in the Greater Toronto Area has nearly doubled in the latest wave of research."

Joe Pantalone also made notable progress in getting people's attention since the last CP24 poll in June. He now has 16.8 per cent of decided voter support. Rocco Rossi (9.7%) and Sarah Thomson (6.4 per cent) round up the pack of front-runners.

Twenty-five per cent of those polled said they still haven't decided who they are voting for on election day.

Smitherman told CTV News there's still time for him to gain support for his platform.

"There are two candidates with the prospect of being mayor and I'm really hoping to marshal more people behind my vision for a city that's inclusive and builds on Toronto's strength rather than rips it apart," he said from a community event on Sunday.

A spokesperson for Rossi's camp said the numbers could sway non-Ford fans to vote for their candidate.

"We expect most Torontonians are going to rally around a coalition-style candidate who can take on Rob Ford and it will be a horse-race down to the end," said campaign manager Bernie Morton.

Commanding lead

Nik Nanos, president of Nanos Research, said candidates who are waiting for Ford's demise shouldn't hold their breath.

"In my experience, when one candidate has a 24-point lead, that candidate actually has to blow up themselves as opposed to other candidates precipitating a change, so to speak," he told CTV News Channel Sunday.

"What really has to happen is Ford needs to make a mistake or for some new sensational thing to come on the stage that would disrupt the Ford campaign," he continued.

But even Ford's mistakes are not swaying his supporters.

In the last few months, Ford has been named in a libel lawsuit and has admitted to being arrested for driving under the influence and possessing marijuana in the U.S. back in 1999. He has been heavily criticized for comments he has made about Canada's immigration policy and has been found in violation of the city's code of conduct by Toronto's integrity commissioner.

"He's not perfect, he's got his blemishes like we all do but he says it the way it is," said one Ford supporter in an interview from Toronto's Danforth neighbourhood.

The man said he doesn't trust the motives of the other candidates.

"I look at the others who are running and I don't think they are accountable or truthful. They just want to win for personally motivated reasons," he said. "(Ford) has been consistent. He's a straight shooter."

A total of 1,021 people were polled through random telephone interviews between Sept. 14 and 16. The margin of accuracy for a random sample of 1,021 likely voters is 3.1 percentage points, plus or minus, 19 times out of 20.