

Sandie Benitah, CP24.com





John Tory keeps a healthy lead over rival Doug Ford in the latest Toronto mayoral election poll from Mainstreet Technologies

The poll, released early Friday morning, puts Tory ahead with 38 per cent of support. Ford places second with 29 per cent of the vote and Chow comes in third with 22 per cent. About eight per cent of respondents said they are still trying to decide who they want to put at the helm of the city’s government.

The poll surveyed 2,265 people and its margin of error is listed as being plus or minus 2.06 percent.

Though the numbers continue to tell a good story for Tory, the survey notes that the front-runner’s support has dropped 4 per cent since the last time Mainstreet conducted a poll. However, Ford and Chow’s numbers have gone up by one per cent and three per cent respectively.

Fewer people told Mainstreet they are undecided.

"There has been some movement but that is to be expected after major advertising campaigns have started,” Mainstreet Technologies President, Quito Maggi, said in a news release accompanying the poll. “Nevertheless, the dynamics of the race remain the same."

Maggi said the numbers could change again if Tory supporters become overly confident in the candidate’s lead and decide to stay home on Oct. 27 instead of going out to cast a ballot.

"At this point, John Tory's main opponent may be voter complacency, he has led for months and some supporters may take the victory for granted and slip back to Chow as a Ford win becomes less likely or choose not to vote at all,” he said.

While different pollsters have had varying results, all surveys have put Tory in the lead.

Forum Research put out a poll Thursday that had similar findings to today’s results.

That poll had Tory in the lead with 39 per cent, Ford at 33 per cent and Chow with 23 per cent.

A poll released by Forum on Oct. 6 had the two frontrunners neck-and-neck.