Debate viewers pick John Tory in real-time voting
Posted October 23, 2014 10:04 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
CityNews gave viewers an opportunity to participate in the final televised Toronto mayoral debate on Thursday by letting them vote in real time on how the top three candidates fared. When the dust had settled following the closing remarks, it appears John Tory had the majority of support from CityNews viewers.
Viewers were asked to respond to what they witnessed during the debate by either clicking on a poll online.
CityNews partnered with California company Poll Everywhere on the real-time voting and results below are unscientific.
There was plenty of movement in the support of the candidates throughout the evening, with Ford either tied or leading the candidates until the final round of voting. This is how the candidates stacked up at the beginning of the debate, with Ford and Tory in a dead heat:
That trend continued on the next round of voting — which occurred approximately every 15 minutes — but with Ford pulling into the lead by a two per cent margin following questions on transit and cycling:
Ford opened up his biggest lead of the evening in the third round of voting, taking 43 per cent of voter support, during a time when Chow was questioning Tory on the funding for his transit plan:
Following a question about instituting road tolls to pay for renovations to keep the Gardiner Expressway, support for Chow rose, mostly at the expense of Ford, who still remained in the lead:
A discussion on the Scarborough subway and the cancelled LRT saw Chow’s support drop in the fifth round of voting, leading to a slight rise for both Ford and Tory, but the margin between those two was just two per cent:
Following the closing statements, Tory (39 per cent) took his first lead of the evening, edging out Ford (35 per cent) by four per cent, while Chow (25 per cent) trailed the leader by 14 per cent:
Toronto voters will have the final say when they go to the polls on Oct. 27.
