Poll shows support for Toronto mayor unaffected by crack-smoking revelations

Toronto mayor Rob Ford’s approval rating has barely suffered since he admitted smoking crack and binge drinking, according to a poll published Friday.

According to a telephone survey conducted on Wednesday, Ford retains the support of 42 per cent of voters in Canada’s biggest city - essentially unchanged in the two weeks since his confession.

This marks only a one percentage point drop in the same survey by Forum Research since November 4, despite Ford having admitted on November 5 that he had smoked crack in a “drunken stupor.”

Since then, Ford has faced a litany of new but unproven allegations of drunken hell-raising, has used obscene language in public while denying a sexual harassment change and accidentally knocked a female council member to the ground during a heated debate.

The populist fiscal conservative’s career suffered a severe blow this week when Toronto’s city council stripped him of the majority of his powers and duties, but he remains determined to fight on.

And his support base remains strong among those the pollsters described as the poor, the least-educated, males, Catholics, those with children and those whose ancestry is other than British.

Ford has threatened to take legal action to regain his lost powers, and on Thursday he was in defiant form as he made his first public speech since his misconduct sparked headlines around the world.