Star Reporter Daniel Dale Bests Mayor 45% To 26% In Stratcom Poll

May 17, 2012 (Toronto) – 45% of Torontonians believe the version of events given by Toronto Star Reporter Daniel Dale about a confrontation with Mayor Ford that that took place in a park beside Mayor Ford’s house on May 2nd, while only 25% believe Mayor Ford, according to a telephone survey of 952 Toronto residents that was conducted by research firm Strategic Communications, Inc. (Stratcom) Tuesday.

The question was:

As you may know, Mayor Ford and Toronto Star reporter Daniel Dale had a confrontation near Mayor Ford’s home last week, and both Daniel Dale and Mayor Ford had a different account on what actually happened in this confrontation. Whose version of what actually happened do you most believe: [ROTATE] Mayor Ford’s or Toronto Star reporter Daniel Dale’s?

“Boxing for charity may help some politicians improve their image, but raising your fist to a news reporter in a park is clearly not helping Mayor Ford to gain trust with Torontonians,” said pollster John Willis of Strategic Communications, Inc., the polling firm that ran the question.

15% of respondents said they did not believe either Dale or the Mayor, and 15% said they did not know. (Figures total more than 100% due to rounding.)

Methods

This survey was fielded using Stratcom’s Rapid Poll, an automated phone poll, on May 16th, 2012, yielding a sample of 952 completed surveys and a margin of error of +/-3.2%, 19 times out of 20 had the entire 18+ population of Toronto been polled. This data was statistically weighted to ensure that the sample’s regional gender and age composition reflects that of the actual Toronto population according to the 2006 Census.

Strategic Communications Inc. (Stratcom) is a full service opinion research and Communications firm with offices in Toronto and Vancouver. We have been providing quantitative and qualitative public affairs research since 1991. Stratcom has been the official pollster to 24 Hours newspaper in Vancouver, and its research has been recognized in The Wall Street Journal, Maclean’s Magazine, The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, and Vancouver Sun newspapers, among others.