Chow's lead slips slightly as Bailao, Furey, Saunders all make gains

Olivia Chow remains the front-runner in Toronto’s mayoral race, according to a new poll, but the three candidates directly behind her each have some momentum going into the final week of the campaign.

A new poll released by Forum Research puts support for Chow at 31 per cent among decided and leaning voters, down three percentage points from last week and six percentage points from the week before, when she was favoured by 38 per cent of voters.

In second place is Mark Saunders, at 15 per cent. Saunders has made a one percentage point gain for two consecutive weeks and has not seen this much support since Forum’s May 13 poll when he was favoured by 18 per cent of leaning or decided voters.

Anthony Furey has continued his steady ascent, gaining two percentage points compared to last week, and holding on to third place with 13 per cent support.

But Furey is now tied with Ana Bailao, who saw the biggest jump in support among the top seven candidates compared to last week when she was favoured by 10 per cent of decided or leaning respondents.

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Bailao has been steadily gaining momentum in the polls over the last few weeks, with some putting her in second place behind Chow.

Josh Matlow remains in fifth place and is polling at nine per cent for the second consecutive week, down from 12 per cent two weeks ago, when he was in third.

Mitzie Hunter (six per cent) and Brad Bradford (four per cent) round out the top seven.

For the second consecutive Forum poll, 10 per cent of decided or leaning voters said they were voting for some other candidate. 12 per cent of respondents remain undecided.

Among those surveyed, the most important issues in the mayoral election are housing affordability and the cost of living and inflation, consistent with previous weeks.

Torontonians now have just one week to decide who they’ll be voting for on Election Day, set for Monday, June 26.