John Tory would beat Doug Ford if the two squared off in a rematch of the 2014 mayoral election but the gap between the two is narrowing, according to a new poll.
Forum Research asked 840 randomly selected residents who they would vote for if an election was held today.
About 44 per cent of respondents said they would vote for Tory while 33 per cent said they would vote for Ford and 22 per cent said they would vote for someone else.
Tory tended to poll better among those in the downtown Toronto (47 per cent) and East York (53 per cent) but he also held his own in Etobicoke, where he had the support of 42 per cent of respondents compared to 40 per cent for Ford.
Tory’s lead over Ford, however, was down five points from the last time Forum Research polled residents on their mayoral vote in March and eight points from another poll in February.
“John Tory has a strong lead over Doug Ford, but this lead is eroding month-over-month,” Forum Research President Lorne Bozinoff said in a press release.
With the next mayoral election still a year-and-a-half away, few candidates have surfaced to take on Tory but Ford has said that he plans to re-enter politics and will either run for mayor of Toronto or seek election to Queen’s Park.
The poll found that Tory remains relatively popular with an approval rating of 47 per cent but that is down from the 51 per cent approval rating he had in March.
The poll is considered accurate to within 3.4 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
