A new poll on Toronto's mayoralty candidates shows front-runners Rob Ford and George Smitherman in a statistical dead heat.
The Nanos poll, commissioned by CP24, CTV and the Globe and Mail, shows that of those people who are "very likely" to vote, Ford leads with 43.9 per cent.
Smitherman is right behind with 40.5 per cent of the vote while support for Joe Pantalone has remained mainly steady at 15 per cent.
About 18.5 per cent of "very likely" voters say they are undecided.
The findings have a margin of error of 3.1 per cent. The research is based on a random telephone sample of 1,000 Torontonians who identified themselves as "very likely" voters. The telephone survey was taken between Oct. 14 and 16, 2010.
The poll, which will be released in three parts starting Sunday night, is the most comprehensive survey taken during the election campaign.
Since CP24 released its last election poll on Sept. 19, candidates Sarah Thomson and Rocco Rossi have dropped out of the race. The majority of their support has gone to Smitherman.
The September poll showed Smitherman had 21.3 per cent support while Ford had 45.8 per cent of the vote.
"With Ford support relatively unchanged in the past 30 days, the change in the structure of the race has worked to the primary benefit of Smitherman," the survey notes.
Voter loyalty
The poll asked voters how firm their support is for their chosen candidate.
Ford supporters were the most loyal at 70.1 per cent.
Smitherman has firm support from 64.8 per cent of his supporters while Pantalone can count on 47.5 per cent of his supporters to stick to their decision.
The poll also notes that the number of undecided voters has dropped from September when 25 per cent of people surveyed said they had not yet made up their minds on who they would choose as Toronto's next mayor.
