Toronto Race for Mayor : Toronto Star Polls Offshore

When The Toronto Star and other media pounced with such ferocity on the personal peccadillos of the Mayor and used them to sabotage the last half of his term of office and all but oust him from office, to me it looked like a pattern of interference from "offstage" was emerging from . . . somewhere. The notion has stuck with me.

And now we have John Tory running for Mayor.

This has brought more slanted coverage of an election emanating from The Toronto Star. I have pointed out the Star's update on the theme of "the yellow peril", in which one of their writers likened the entry of Doug Ford into the mayoralty race as an attempt to institute a North Korean style dynastic dictatorship in our fair city.

Then there is the case of the "expurgated middle", the amusing and misleading way in which the Star has reported John Tory's poll results.

In the edition of the Saturday Star, published on September 27, under a front page headline Tory takes commanding lead citywide, we are told:

Of those polled, 48 per cent said that they would vote for John Tory, while Doug Ford and Olivia Chow were tied with 26 percent.

However, three days later, when the numbers changed, the Star reported it, again on the front page, in an odd way.

John Tory holds a comfortable lead but Doug Ford appears to be gaining ground -- 33 percent of voters would support Ford, who is leading in North York, according to Forum Research. Olivia Chow's support stands at 20 percent.

The Star elaborates:

The results follow (!?!) the trajectory reported by Ipsos Reid on Friday. That poll placed Tory in the lead with 48 percent of the vote. Olivia Chow and Ford followed behind with 26 per cent each.

"Trajectory" implies movement, but the "trajectoy" indicated by the polls is, surely, upward for Mr. Ford, who has had a 26% increase in his support, as indicated by the polls.

Mr. Tory's "trajectory", since the Star used the word, is downward. He has had a 10% decrease in support, according to the polls.

Ms. Chow's "trajectory" has dropped precipitately. She has had a decrease of 23% in her support, according to the polls.

So, I suppose the latest poll does, to quote The Toronto Star, "follow the trajectory" of the previous poll, but only if one is cross-eyed, as the Star evidently is, at least on this subject.

Someone must have printed the graph up-side down and they said HEY :>) ...It's gotten to the point for me with polls where I just hang up but seldom is it on a person as of late .Push 5 for yes 6 for don't care ,or just hang up and we will fill in the blanks .... a reply to: ipsedixit

Last week I was on a site with a poll for mayor of Toronto. In order to see the poll results I had to vote even though I do not live in Toronto and thus do not qualify. So I clicked on one name and it gave the results similar to what you have listed. Of course it thanked me for voting etc.

It sure looks like the old boys want Tory in and are producing the propaganda for it to happen. It will be interesting to see how many people fall for it.

a reply to: aboutface

The lead up to October 27 is going to be very interesting. I'm glad the campaign is long because I have learned a lot about the economic and political situation in this city. I would like to learn even more.