http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/307551

Posted Jun 3, 2011 by Andrew Moran

Toronto Mayor is a popular figure in the city, but a new poll shows that his approval rating has dropped slightly. The survey also showed low support for road tolls to help pay for the Sheppard Subway Line.

Following his decisive mayoral victory in October, and then entering office in December, polls suggested that Rob Ford maintained a high approval rating. Last month, Ipsos Reid released a survey showing that the Mayor had a 70 percent approval rating.

A new Forum Research telephone poll pretty much shows that Ford is popular Andrew Moran in Toronto, but his approval rating has slightly declined.

According to the poll, 57 percent of Toronto residents support the mayor’s performance thus far. Meanwhile, when looking closely at the polling results, it shows that Ford has at least 60 percent support from people aged 35-54 and 55-plus and from residents living in Etobicoke, and Scarborough.

There were reports surfacing that Gordon Chong, a Toronto Transit Commission adviser, suggested that the city may have no alternative but to adopt road tolls in order to pay for the new TTC Sheppard Subway Line and reduce road congestion.

Ford, as well as members of city council and TTC Chairwoman Karen Stintz, immediately dismissed the idea.

Torontonians aren’t keen on the idea of a road tolls, according to the Forum survey. The results show that 43 Andrew Moran percent disapprove of introducing a road toll in the A sign near the Old City Hall Courthouse supporting Mayor Rob Ford. Greater Toronto Area. But it’s still pretty open because 35 percent approve of the proposal.

When asked about various municipal issues, residents were strongly in favour of implementing bike lanes (72 percent), having festivals, marathons and marches transferred to city parks instead of streets and highways (65 percent) and garbage collection privatization (52 percent).

The automated telephone survey was conducted on June 1, 2011 with 1,050 randomly selected Toronto adults. The poll contains a margin of error of +/- 3.1 percentage points.