(Toronto, ON) – A new Liaison Strategies poll for the National Ethnic Press and Media Council of Canada (NEPMCC) shows Olivia Chow's approval rating dropping by 16 points to 55%.

The poll also finds 47% of Toronto residents approve of the proposed City of Toronto budget. Unsurprisingly, affordable housing is the top issue in the city (36%) followed by transit (21%) and crime (17%).

Conducted from February 5-6, 2024, using interactive voice response technology, the poll surveyed 875 Toronto residents. The margin of error for the poll is +/- 3.31%, 19 times out of 20. Liaison is a member of the Canadian Insights Research Council (CRIC).

"The Olivia Chow honeymoon is over," said David Valentin, principal at Liaison Strategies.

"In previous months we've found her approval as high as 75% and as low as 71%. 55% is majority approval but she's gone from a +49 (approval minus disapproval) to a +16."

"Part of the cause is almost certainly the Toronto budget but Chow also has a perceived weakness on crime. We asked residents to score Chow's on several issues and while she received high grades on Toronto's relationship with the federal and provincial governments (65%) and a similarly high grade for her work on affordable housing (64%) only 48% approve of her work when it comes to crime."

"The budget itself is scoring worse than Chow's personal numbers but a plurality support it, 47% to 40%. When we asked Torontonians during the election if the city was moving in the right or wrong direction, most told us it was moving in the wrong direction. That's now changed significantly and 49% say the city is moving in the right direction."

"We fielded several questions in this survey that we previously asked during the election. We asked Torontonians once again if it was better to raise taxes or cut services. Support for both has gone up, raising taxes is up to 36% from 30% and cutting spending is up to 35% from 28% with the remainder unsure."

"Support for cutting funding from the Toronto Police Service to fund social services is down from 39% to 31% with 44% now opposing the measure (+7 opposition). This despite the fact that only 17% rank crime as the most important issue facing the city."

"The numbers tell us that Torontonians mostly approve of how things are going at the moment. Approvals in the 70% range were always going to be a challenge for any politician to maintain - especially once tough conversations about the budget and tax rates took the spotlight," concluded Valentin.

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