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Midtown councillors riding high in early poll

Midtown city councillors have nothing to worry about in the next municipal election, to judge by a recent poll.

Of course, that poll was taken nearly a year before the next election, scheduled for October 2018, and has not taken into account any opponents of the incumbents.

The poll by the relatively new market research company, The Firm Digital, asked respondents simply whether they would vote to re-elect their current councillors.

Still, the results released Sunday are impressive for local councillors.

Leading the midtown councillors in the survey — in fact, leading all Toronto councillors — is Ward 22’s Josh Matlow. The poll gives him a 68 percent “Yes” score and a 13 percent “No,” with the rest of the respondents being undecided.

Also riding high in the poll are Ward 20’s Joe Cressy with 57 percent yes and 12 percent no, Ward 25’s Jaye Robinson with 55 percent yes and 15 percent no; Ward 26’s Jon Burnside with 51 percent yes and 10 percent no; and Ward 21’s Joe Mihevc with 51 percent yes and 26 percent no.

Showing lower approvals rates, but still in positive territory, are Ward 27’s Kristyn Wong-Tam with 44 percent yes and 28 percent no, and Ward 16’s Christin Carmichael Greb with 43 percent yes and 27 percent no.

The Firm Digital, based in Aurora, Ont., says it conducted an interactive voice response phone survey of 15,576 people to test the popularity of incumbent Toronto councillors in their respective wards. The poll was carried out Nov. 14–28 and claims a margin of error of plus or minus 4.1 percent, 19 times out of 20.

The same survey also sought views on the mayoralty race. Results released on Dec. 3 showed in a head-to-head contest Mayor John Tory would receive 38.6 percent support versus 32.9 percent for Doug Ford, with 28.4 percent of voters undecided.

Those figures put the mayor’s race quite a bit closer than previous polls have indicated.