Rob Ford Retakes Lead in Toronto Mayoral Poll Headed into Final Weekend!

The latest Toronto Mayoralty Poll taken during the week of October 13th through until October 21st shows Rob Ford retaking the lead headed into the final weekend before the 2010 Election.

Here's the story from the Globe and Mail (it must have killed the Globe to have to release this one!):

Rob Ford pulls ahead, gaining ground with immigrants, poll shows

A new poll in the final days of the campaign shows Rob Ford pulling ahead in the mayoral race – and gaining among the city’s immigrant communities.

A survey of 500 Torontonians over a week shows 43.9 per cent would vote for Rob Ford, compared with 35.6 for George Smitherman and 15 per cent for Joe Pantalone.

The poll seems to indicate the Etobicoke councillor is gaining ground after being locked in a tie with the deputy premier for the past couple of weeks – multiple polls taken recently show the two candidates polling within the margin of error as each tries to out-campaign the other.

The poll also indicates Mr. Ford is gaining traction with the city’s immigrants: 51.7 per cent of those polled born outside Canada say they plan to vote for Mr. Ford, compared with 30.1 per cent who plan to vote for Mr. Smitherman and 11.1 per cent who support Mr. Pantalone.

The poll indicates Mr. Ford, who had lost much of his lead since polling 24 points ahead of Mr. Smitherman in September, has momentum going into the final weekend. While his campaign has been keeping a relatively low profile from a policy front, they’ve hammered at Mr. Smitherman’s decision not to release his list of donors prior to the election and on his political record – especially as health minister, using a new auditor’s report of money spent in the province’s health ministry to question is record of fiscal responsibility.

The poll, conducted between Oct. 13 and 21, is accurate within 4.4 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

Also, in case you're interested, here are a couple of other stories that came out headed into the weekend that are definitely worth a read:

Ford slams Smitherman over donor list

Rob Ford is asking rival George Smitherman to show him the campaign money.

The mayoral candidate issued a statement Friday slamming Smitherman for not revealing his donor list before Toronto residents go to the polls on Monday.

Ford and Joe Pantalone have both released their donor lists but under the election rules can still raise cash right up to the end of the year.

"The voters deserve to know where the money is coming from," Ford said in a campaign statement. "Every major candidate since 2003 has done this willingly, but with (Smitherman) refusing to release his donors' lists, it's clear we need new rules to improve transparency and accountability.

"It raises the question, what is George Smitherman hiding?"

Ford went on to question if Smitherman was receiving cash from his "friends at the Courtyard Group paying back some favours for all those sole-sourced contracts?"

"We don't know," Ford concluded. "George won't tell us."

The Ford campaign also launched a website late Thursday called badanswer.ca.

Ford spokesman Fraser MacDonald said the site is aimed at "putting the fire to Mr. Smtiherman's feet."

The website features a YouTube clip of Ford confronting Smitherman at a debate about eHealth and sole-sourced contracts. The site also links to several news articles.

"He's got some difficult questions to answer," he said. "We are telling voters to take a look and look at the facts and decide for themselves whether they can trust someone who has handed out sole-source contracts to his buddies.

"I think it further underscores the need for him to release his donor's list."

If you have a few mins, I would recommend checking out the website badanswer.ca. There are links to various news stories (including from the Toronto Star) which prove that Smitherman did indeed give sole-sourced deals via eHealth to his friends and connections. Also, it has detailed excel spreadsheets outlining which of his friends he gave deals to, how much they were for, and etc. Definitely a good read if you are planning to vote for Smitherman, or if you are still undecided.

YWCA rips Ford but doesn't reveal leader a Smitherman backer

Officials of YWCA Toronto — in their letter released Tuesday — suggested mayoralty candidate Rob Ford is not someone with vision or compassion.

They also implied he engaged in the “predictable poor-bashing, stereotyping and NIMBYism” in his opposition to their 68-unit affordable housing complex — on Bergamot Ave. — approved for his ward in 2005.

Then, not to miss an opportunity to grab the spotlight, George Smitherman’s new best friend, Sarah Thomson, held court later that day to claim the YWCA experience just proves Toronto women “should think” about the kind of city Rob Ford would lead.

But no one — not Thomson, not the top officials at the YWCA — bothered to mention the board president’s ties with the George Smitherman campaign.

Dr. Kristin Blakely-Kozman (a PhD) is a member of the Women for George.

An Oct. 14 statement on Smitherman’s website has Blakely-Kozman 160th on the list of 287 women who have signed on to the Smitherman campaign saying they believe “George is a leader that will build on Toronto’s strengths, instead of recklessly cutting the city down.”

Selective oversight? Conflict of interest? Hmmm.