TORONTO — Toronto’s mayoral race has tightened with less than five weeks before the Oct. 26 election, as a new poll shows Mayor Olivia Chow’s lead over Councillor Brad Bradford narrowing to seven percentage points.
The latest Liaison Strategies survey puts Chow at 47 per cent among decided and leaning voters, compared with 40 per cent for Bradford. Former federal cabinet minister Chris Alexander is third at 10 per cent, while three per cent support another candidate.
Chow’s lead has fallen from 11 points in Liaison’s Sept. 9 survey, when she had 50 per cent support compared with Bradford’s 39 per cent.
Liaison principal David Valentin cautioned that the latest result alone is not enough to establish a new trend. A significant number of voters also remain undecided. Among all respondents, including undecided voters, Chow received 39 per cent, Bradford 33 per cent and Alexander eight per cent, while 17 per cent had not chosen a candidate.
Affordability is emerging as a major issue in the campaign. When voters were asked to identify their most important issue without being given a list of choices, 23 per cent named cost of living, followed by housing affordability at 19 per cent, crime and public safety at 17 per cent, and traffic and congestion at 13 per cent.
The poll also shows 52 per cent approve of Chow’s performance as mayor, while 42 per cent disapprove.
Bradford is viewed favourably by 33 per cent of respondents and unfavourably by 37 per cent, while 19 per cent said they were unfamiliar with him.
Toronto residents remain almost evenly divided about the city’s direction, with 47 per cent saying Toronto is moving in the right direction and 46 per cent saying it is moving in the wrong direction.
The Liaison Strategies poll surveyed 1,000 Toronto residents Sept. 19 and 20 using interactive voice response and random-digit dialing. The overall results have a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.