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Even CanWest is saying Tory could lose Don Valley West
School funding could be Tory's ruin in own riding
Zev Singer, CanWest News Service
Published: Monday, October 01, 2007
John Tory's promise to fund faith-based schools is so deeply unpopular with voters that the Ontario Progressive Conservative leader is facing defeat in his own riding.
An Ottawa Citizen/COMPAS poll has found that the Conservative leader, whose party has consistently trailed Dalton McGuinty's Liberals province-wide throughout the first three weeks of the campaign, now has big trouble in his own backyard.
The poll shows Tory with backing of 37 per cent of decided voters in race for the riding of Don Valley West, well behind the 52 per cent for Liberal Kathleen Wynne.
Decided voters in that Toronto riding are giving the Green Party six per cent support and the NDP five per cent. The poll, which surveyed 333 voters between Sept. 25 and Sept. 29, is considered accurate within 5.6 percentage points 19 times out of 20.
Until the writ was dropped, Tory represented the riding of Dufferin-Peel-Wellington-Grey, but this time he chose to run in Toronto, taking on a strong incumbent in Education Minister Kathleen Wynne.
The poll shows clearly that the faith-based school funding issue is uniting voters of all political leanings - and not in the way Tory would like.
Among all the voters, 65 per cent agreed with the statement: "Funding should not be extended because Ontario already has a major challenge making sure that our large immigrant population fits in and shares our values."
The worst part for Tory is probably that even amongst voters who identify themselves as supporters of the Conservatives, 53 per cent agreed with that statement.
Of voters in the riding, only 20 per cent agreed with the statement that "funding should be extended because parents should have the freedom to pass on to their own children their own personal moral and religious values."
Overall, 42 per cent of voters agreed with the statement that "it is risky to extend funding because public money could be used by some schools to teach extremist values."
Among those who were willing to name a particular type of school that was of special concern on this front, the most common response was Islamic, at 14 per cent, followed by Christian and Sikh, each at six per cent, and then Hindu, Tamil and Buddhist, each at four per cent, and Orthodox Jewish, at a fraction of one per cent.
"If a day is an eternity in politics, then the Ontario Progressive Conservative leader has 10 eternities during which he can turn his fortunes around in Don Valley West," said Compas's Conrad Winn, who was the principal investigator on the study.
Ottawa Citizen
School funding could be Tory's ruin in own riding
Zev Singer, CanWest News Service
Published: Monday, October 01, 2007
John Tory's promise to fund faith-based schools is so deeply unpopular with voters that the Ontario Progressive Conservative leader is facing defeat in his own riding.
An Ottawa Citizen/COMPAS poll has found that the Conservative leader, whose party has consistently trailed Dalton McGuinty's Liberals province-wide throughout the first three weeks of the campaign, now has big trouble in his own backyard.
The poll shows Tory with backing of 37 per cent of decided voters in race for the riding of Don Valley West, well behind the 52 per cent for Liberal Kathleen Wynne.
Decided voters in that Toronto riding are giving the Green Party six per cent support and the NDP five per cent. The poll, which surveyed 333 voters between Sept. 25 and Sept. 29, is considered accurate within 5.6 percentage points 19 times out of 20.
Until the writ was dropped, Tory represented the riding of Dufferin-Peel-Wellington-Grey, but this time he chose to run in Toronto, taking on a strong incumbent in Education Minister Kathleen Wynne.
The poll shows clearly that the faith-based school funding issue is uniting voters of all political leanings - and not in the way Tory would like.
Among all the voters, 65 per cent agreed with the statement: "Funding should not be extended because Ontario already has a major challenge making sure that our large immigrant population fits in and shares our values."
The worst part for Tory is probably that even amongst voters who identify themselves as supporters of the Conservatives, 53 per cent agreed with that statement.
Of voters in the riding, only 20 per cent agreed with the statement that "funding should be extended because parents should have the freedom to pass on to their own children their own personal moral and religious values."
Overall, 42 per cent of voters agreed with the statement that "it is risky to extend funding because public money could be used by some schools to teach extremist values."
Among those who were willing to name a particular type of school that was of special concern on this front, the most common response was Islamic, at 14 per cent, followed by Christian and Sikh, each at six per cent, and then Hindu, Tamil and Buddhist, each at four per cent, and Orthodox Jewish, at a fraction of one per cent.
"If a day is an eternity in politics, then the Ontario Progressive Conservative leader has 10 eternities during which he can turn his fortunes around in Don Valley West," said Compas's Conrad Winn, who was the principal investigator on the study.
Ottawa Citizen
