MB Toronto
Morning Brew: The mayor's approval rating increases, Toronto police to be the highest paid in the country, Zipcars at a TTC subway near you, Doug Ford is pretty sure of a Tory sweep, and the end of EYE
A new poll finds that Mayor Rob Ford's approval rating has jumped to 70 per cent, up from 60 per cent since February. In addition to the mayor's performance, 65 per cent of those surveyed support how city council is handling tax dollars. However things could change soon for the mayor when he begins to contract out garbage workers and trim expenses as 72 per cent of Torontonians feel municipal services provide good value for tax dollars. The survey of 913 Torontonians was conducted by the Ipsos Public Affairs for the Toronto Real Estate Board.
A tentative agreement reached earlier this week will make Toronto police officers the highest paid in the country with salary increases totaling 11.5 per cent over the next four years. This is the first time the Toronto Police Association has accepted a four year contract, up from the usual three year deal. Not surprisingly most police officers like the deal, especially in these economic times. Councillor Pam McConnell, former police services board vice-chair, called the settlement "a bit rich," but also noted a quick settlement did save money.
TTC commuters will soon be zipping along, thanks to Zipcar's new presence at four Toronto subway stops.The U.S.-based car sharing network will have two cars placed at Leslie, Wilson, Eglinton West and Keele stations, making it the first reserved parking of any kind for TTC parking lots.
Doug Ford says the federal election results send a "clear message" that could translate into a Tory win for the province. With the Liberals losing 14 seats in Toronto, Ford believes the city's political landscape has changed, which means good news for Ontario Conservative leader Tim Hudak. And apparently this wasn't lost on Hudak or the mayor. Ford reports, "It's going to be very interesting. When Rob was doing cartwheels down the street, I saw Tim Hudak doing cartwheels right beside him." Now that's a mental image I won't soon forget.
It's time to see good bye to EYE. This week's issue is the very last to be called EYE Weekly before it officially becomes the Grid. To mark the end of the era, the mag looks back on their two decades covering Toronto news and events.
IN BRIEF:
- Battle over bike lanes
- Early morning fire destroys home in the Bathurst and Eglinton area
- Jays beat Rays
Photo by archoneus in the blogTO Flickr pool.
Discussion
62 Comments
Sort By Oldest First / Newest First
Subscribe
So 913 home owners like they did not get an increase in property taxes.
These polls get more and more questionable as time passes, unfortunately they influence people how not like to think
Anyways, I think his approval rating will only go up by privatizing garbage collection. Many people are still bitter from that strike which Miller dragged on for almost 2 months only to bend over for the union.
Issues like freezing salaries at city hall, keeping property taxes from increasing and privatizing garbage collection are reasons why Ford was elected in the first place. Now he's carrying forward on his promises and there's no surprise that people are supportive.
Moreover, Canada's CPI has risen a little over 2% every year for the last decade. In Ontario alone for the past year it went up by 3.6% in the past 12 months (http://www.statcan.gc.ca/subjects-sujets/cpi-ipc/t110419a2-eng.htm). In other words, this is not much more than a cost of living increase.
Frankly a poll now when he's done bugger-all so far is pretty pointless and not worthy of comment.
It's interesting times we're living in that legacy technology and techniques are swaying the appearance of public opinion by excluding the vast majority of the next generations.
They have from being informative (way back when) to entertainment (like TV ratings) to influence peddling.
The past couple elections we seen that most polls are strongly biased. There is the Toronto Star, Toronto Sun, CTV, Global, CBS etc conducting their own polls.
From your rambling postings you sound like the one that needs to move out of Toronto.
Do you know how those polls work? Do you know that their sole source of information is people with landlines? Do you know anyone with a landline? I only know old people with landlines. Pollign only those people that ahve landliens is a terribly innacurate way to gauge the population in its entirity. You can argue that people liek rob ford but you can't argue with the cold hard fact that the polls are not accurate.
They feel entitled to the maximum amount back with the minimum for everyone else.
In the end he can cut whatever he wants from social services and most people won't care. (as long as those services are designed for a minority of the population).
For example, most people drive or take TTC, so he can cut anything pedestrian, cycling and car share related with little backlash from the majority of the populace.
The disturbing thing is: the economic hardships in these people's minds are mostly made up. Mostly due to influence from American media (where they do have problems)
The only poll that matters is the one in their heads.
Public opinion polls? Poppycock!
So sorry, Doug. The NFL CAN keep ignoring a market of this size.
The guy's a sleezeball. Like that used car salesman in buffalo, has those slimy commercials. I wonder what the board of his company thinks of him, "oh here comes dumbass again, can't we buy him out or something?"
I'm tired of all you anti Ford idiots.
I have been paying taxes for longer then you have lived in this city.
I was born and raised in this city and seen it grow from nothing to what it is today.
I have been here during the good times (yes Ford is part of the good times) and the miserable times such as Miller and the even worse Barbara hall. (shudder)
Why not move to Vancouver or if your artistic move to Montreal.
Toronto is a city of business. BIG business. We are the economic centre of the country. We are a Banking city, a city of Business.
We are not a city of hugging tree's and singing songs and bicycle lanes. Bicycles are for Currier s and the weekends on a nice summer day. Not in February in a meter of snow yha dip shit.
We need subways not useless street cars that do not work.
We need better timed lights and roads.
Because I know you failed math TIME = $$$$.
If you don't like it, you are free to leave at any time. I recommend now. We will ship your stuff to you free of charge. Or dump it in lake Ontario.
GTA?!? why are they being asked what their opinion is of the mayor of TORONTO? no wonder the poll numbers are so high. they're not affected by library closings, municipal land transfer taxes and countless of other issues. Ford is the mayor of Toronto, not Milton or Brampton etc...
On to other things -- it's surprising that TorStar is relaunching Eye as "Grid". If they really want to succeed in the citymag format, they should do what every other big league city does and license a local version of TimeOut. There is already a yearly guidebook and weak website for TimeOut Toronto but it might make sense for TorStar to partner with them for a weekly print magazine, as in New York, London, Chicago and a bunch of other cities. I could see that doing very well as a successor to Eye.
So I say cut all services, give everyone a gun and call it a day.
"The survey of 913 Torontonians, conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs for the Toronto Real Estate Board, found that 70 per cent approve of the mayor’s performance and 65 per cent support the way city council is handling tax dollars."
Welcome to the interwebs TMAC. I will curse Ford and you at my leisure.
Not sure what you do with your life, but most people do more then just work, and those that do work only a small % of Torontonians work for banks.
Funny you bring up math, btw, since your guy has shown, on numerous occasions, that he has zero math skills, btu ya know, like, w/e.
and in the press release it clearly says "The poll of 913 adults living in Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area was conducted on-line between April 18 and April 26, 2011,"
The Real Estate board has never been a source of great intelligence, all they how to do is sell houses.
Which land transfer tax were they talking about, the provinces or the city of Toronto?
They were the ones who predicted a real estate collapse if the city added a transfer tax, also the provincial HST, never happened, actually sales went up.
If they were serious they would cut commissions
I work for a business, I am an artist and I try and bike, even in February, whenever I can. Please tell me which city to live in.
"The poll found that 70 per cent of Torontonians approve of the overall performance of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, and that 65 per cent
believe that Toronto City Council is on the right track with regard to the management of taxpayer dollars."
You've found the answer. Now wipe off the foam.
The dumping of reasoned thinking and arguments, the ignoring of facts.
I have heard repeatedly form these self professed right thinkers that anyone that does not think like them are fair game to squash, take their taxes, spend wildly on their needs and call anyone that challenges them `pinkos, tree huggers, freeloaders etc.
They want to steal the city the province the country for their own self centered needs.
And speaking of trees, did you know that streets with good tree coverage need to have their surfaces replaced less often? There's less of a "heat island" effect, making streets both more pleasant and cheaper to maintain.
But of course, we both know you haven't looked into the facts about anything.