Rob Ford's return from rehab has failed to boost his polling numbers, according to a new survey by Forum Research. The mayor's approval rating hovers at 31 per cent, which is up ever so slightly from its all time low of 28 per cent on June 6th. It's mostly the same story in the mayoral race, where projected vote breakdown looks very similar to Forum's last poll on June 23rd. Oliva Chow enjoys 36 per cent of the vote, John Tory comes in at 27 per cent and Ford sits at 26 per cent.

Ford's 26 per cent represents a bump from his mid-rehab 20 per cent on June 6th, but not over Forum's June 23rd poll, which put him at 27 per cent. While this may not be surprising to some, there was certainly much speculation that a slimmer and repentant Ford would be able to dramatically improve his numbers by merely returning and being apologetic. Toward this end, the mayor's return speech ranks as a failure. According to Forum, "more than 6-in-10 Toronto voters watched or listened to the speech the mayor gave upon his return on Monday, June 30 (61 per cent), but, of these, just one third say this speech was a satisfactory explanation and apology for the mayor's behaviour (34 per cent), while 6-in-10 did not find it satisfactory (60 per cent)."

If there was a winner of this particular poll, it's Tory, who continues to lead in the approval rating department and has made modest gains in the projected percentage of votes.

Photo by BruceK