Less than half of Toronto residents approve of Mayor Olivia Chow's performance: poll
Less than half of Toronto residents approve of Mayor Olivia Chow's performance, according to a new poll.
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The Leger survey asked Toronto residents about their mayor as part of a broader poll on Ontario politics. Respondents were almost evenly split over Chow's handling of municipal affairs as she nears the end of her second year at the helm of Canada's largest city. Slightly less than half (48 per cent) of people strongly or somewhat approved of her performance, while 42 per cent said they strongly or somewhat disapproved. Another 10 per cent said they were not sure.
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'Torontonians are on the fence about Mayor Chow,' Leger senior vice-president Jennifer McLeod Macey told National Post in an email. 'While the proportion that approve is nominally higher than those that disapprove, approval is soft. Indeed, almost twice as many strongly disapprove as strongly approve.'
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The poll found that 17 per cent strongly disapprove of Chow's performance, while only 10 per cent said they strongly approve.
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Macey said that the market research company 'didn't have the opportunity to probe on the 'Why?'' in the latest survey, but she was interested in 'digging deeper into municipal issues, such as taxes, crime and safety, affordable housing, and transit which are all undoubtably having an impact on public opinion.' She found little 'variance' among different demographics in terms of Chow's approval rating, but pointed to 'more uncertainty among women and young-middle-aged adults.'
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Whereas just six per cent of male respondents were unsure of Chow's job performance, 15 per cent of women were. A similar number of 18 to 34 year olds (14 per cent) and 35 to 54 year olds (15 per cent) were on the fence about Chow's performance as mayor. Greater communication 'on key issues could have a significant impact on overall approval ratings,' Macey said.
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Chow was elected in July 2023 following the resignation of John Tory over an affair with a political staffer 38 years younger than him. She had previously run for the post in 2014, placing third behind Doug Ford, who went on to become premier of Ontario, and Tory, who became mayor.
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Months after she was elected, Hamas invaded Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and Chow has been criticized by some city councillors for failing to protect Toronto's Jewish community. Beaches-East York Councillor Brad Bradford accused Chow of dragging her feet on municipal initiatives to protect local places of worship, notably synagogues that have been picketed by anti-Israel protesters.
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'In the fifteen months since October 7, an absence of leadership has turned Toronto into a city that many don't recognize,' Bradford wrote in National Post earlier this year. 'This is not a Jewish problem — it's a Toronto problem. This is about our values and who we want to be as a city. Unfortunately, as we enter 2025, this crisis has been met with a lack of leadership at the highest level.'
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