Smitherman, Ford tied with election one week away

Rob Ford’s once-surging Toronto mayoral campaign appears to have lost all momentum, according to the latest poll.

Ford held a double-digit lead over George Smitherman at Labour Day, but that lead has evaporated thanks to anti-Ford campaigns by his rivals and the media that portrayed the Etobicoke councilor as ignorant and irresponsible. He’s promised massive cuts at City Hall but says he can achieve a $1.7 billion surplus without any reduction in services. The latest poll was commissioned by the Toronto Star, which has showed a remarkable bias against Ford since the campaign began, and pegs Smitherman and Ford at 40 and 41 per cent support respectively, making the election on Oct. 25 a dead heat given the poll’s margin of error. Outgoing Mayor David Miller’s chosen successor Joe Pantalone is a distant third at 16 per cent.