Olivia Chow appears to have widened her lead in Toronto’s mayoral race at the expense of Ana Bailao, a new survey suggests.
The latest survey from Mainstreet Research shows that if an election were held today, Chow would have the support of 32.6 per cent of decided voters compared to 17 per cent for Ana Bailao and 14.2 per cent for Mark Saunders.
Anthony Furey and Mitzie Hunter were in a virtual tie for fourth at 8.7 per cent and 8.3 per cent, respectively.
Chow saw her support among decided voters rise by three points from another Mainstreet Research survey released last week while Bailao was down three points.
Saunders, meanwhile, saw his support inch up by one point.
The survey was conducted between June 9 and June 11, in the days following a public appeal by Saunders for other candidates to withdraw from the race and work with his campaign to “stop Olivia Chow.”
But it would appear that the gambit did not have its desired effect, with Chow’s support among decided voters now hovering around the highest level it has been all campaign per Mainstreet Research polling.
Chow is most popular in Toronto’s downtown core, where she has the support of 37 per cent of decided voters. But she also has a double digit lead in North York and Etobicoke, where she has the support of about 26 per cent of voters. The only region in which Chow trails is Scarborough, where Bailao has a three point edge.
The poll, however, shows that about 18 per cent of voters are still undecided with less than two weeks until election day.
“I have been saying that for a long time that I thought the undecided vote was a not Chow vote and I am not so sure about that premise anymore. As the undecided portion continues to lower, Olivia Chow is holding her numbers,” Mainstreet Research President Quito Maggi told CP24 on Wednesday. “As we come into the last couple weeks where everybody is paying attention maybe the polls change. But it is really hard to imagine anyone catching Olivia Chow at this point.”
METHODOLOGY
A total of 833 adults participated in the survey, which was conducted using automated telephone interviews. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.4 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
