TORONTO

Slightly less than half of Toronto voters recently polled by Forum Research still approve of Mayor John Tory.

According to the results of the poll, released today, Tory’s approval rating came up to 46% among a random sampling of 1,090 respondents.

At 29%, almost a third of them, though, disapprove of Tory’s performance as mayor, and a solid 25% said they don’t know.

Forum Research president Dr. Lorne Bozinoff said even though Tory’s approval numbers are going down, he “remains popular amongst Toronto voters at present and would see himself re-elected if an election were held today.”

“However, with the next election more than one and a half years away, there’s still plenty of time for a rival’s profile to grow and make the 2018 race a contest,” he added in a statement accompanying the poll results.

Meanwhile, the same poll shows that the gap between Tory and Doug Ford – his “perceived main rival” - has grown smaller since November 2016, jumping from 29% to 19%.

But Tory still remains the number one choice among decided and leaning voters – 49% of them said they’d pick him, as opposed to 30% who’d choose Ford. Another 21% said they have someone else in mind for the top spot.

Respondents most likely to go for Tory if an election were held today include people over 65 (58%) and people earning between $100,000 and $250,000 a year (66%).

Those most likely to go for Ford include the “least wealthy” (42%).

The poll had a margin of error of 3%, 19 times out of 20.

mshah@postmedia.com