Interesting thing about those polling numbers just released by the city’s elections office?
Rob Ford held his own in the core, coming in second more often than not to main rival George Smitherman, managing to steal one in Beaches-East York.
Even in traditional NDP stronghold Ward 19 Trinity-Spadina, home of the left’s standard bearer, Joe Pantalone, Ford held on scoring 4,630 votes to Pants’s 5,801.
The mayor-elect did, in fact, manage to finish ahead of the Small Wonder next door in Adam Vaughan’s Ward 20 where he counted 5,476 votes to Pants’s 4,129.
Ditto for Davenport Ward 18, held by another NDPer, Adam Giambrone. Ford outran Pants there, too, scoring 3,973 votes to Pants’s 3,756.
In Ward 14 Parkdale, Ford made a similar dent, capturing more votes (4,788) than Pantalone (3,882). And again in both Toronto Danforth wards 29 and 30.
Some of the results are no doubt attributable to the left abandoning Pants for Smitherman to head off Ford.
Still, in NDP enclaves sprinkled with young hipsters downtown, Fordo seems to have gotten out the working class vote.
If you extend the downtown core to include wards just north of St. Clair West in the old city of York, Ford’s numbers are more impressive.
There he took Ward 17 Davenport, an emerging NDP base (maybe not anymore), and Ward 15, the latter by a mile, counting 8,923 votes to Smitherman’s 4,282.
Stretch the old city of Toronto boundaries to include enclaves in the old city of East York north of Eglinton and neighbourhoods along tony Yonge Street north of Lawrence, and it’s also clear the monied folks had a hand in electing Ford.
Ford’s wins south of 401 include Ward 16 Eglinton-Lawrence, and Wards 25 and 26 Don Valley West.
As a side note. In the so-called battle of Etobicoke – both Ford and Smitherman call the Coke home – Ford got 76,950 votes versus Smitherman’s 27,228.
Also check out our VoteTO map for numbers on final votes in every ward
