Perhaps Toronto Mayor Rob Ford needn’t go to such extreme and awkward measures to defend his public image following his latest scandal. It turns out that his approval rating actually went up after police confirmed the existence of a video of him smoking crack. A Thursday night poll by Forum Research showed Ford with a 44 percent approval rating, up from 39 percent on Oct. 28. “That may sound counterintuitive. It could be a sampling, margin-of-error thing, or it could be just some sympathy,” Forum Research president Lorne Bozinoff told the Toronto Star. “If you saw him during that media scrum yesterday, it might have generated some sympathy.”
Ford’s approval rating has been hovering around the 40s for months, hitting 49 percent in September, so the margin of error thing might be at work here. Whatever it is, the video clearly hasn’t been a devastating blow to the mayor’s popularity. And he apparently can’t be forced to resign. Maybe somebody should tell Ford that: According to one CBC reporter, city hall officials haven’t been able to reach Ford for days. TPM, not unrealistically, suspects a bender.
Update: The Toronto Sun has been trying its best to keep track of Ford since Friday: “After huddling with family at his mother’s home, he visited a bakery, a TCHC building and his family’s business, Deco Labels.” Then he dropped by a police station to report The Sun’s reporters for following him: “It isn’t clear where Ford went after the meeting but there was no sign of him at City Hall all day Friday.”
