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Toronto Mayor Rob Ford sees popularity slide while Calgary’s Naheed Nenshi sails on

After Rob Ford won the Toronto mayor's chair in 2010, it was hard to find people who admitted voting for him. A year into his mayoralty, it appears that pool is dwindling in actual fact.

A small-c conservative, free-enterprising budget cutter, Ford campaigned on a platform of tough love to deal with the city's ballooning costs.

Now a new poll by Forum Research suggests Torontonians are balking at Ford's prescription. The survey of 1,046 residents was conducted this week after city manager Joe Pennachetti released a list of recommended budget cuts. It put support for Ford at 42 per cent, down from 57 per cent on June 1 and 60 per cent in late February.

Forum president Lorne Bozinoff said he believes Ford's numbers could sink even lower.

"This drop in support has come without any cutbacks actually coming into effect, we're only at the idea stage," Bozinoff told the Toronto Star. "This is a ceiling — I think it's going to get a lot worse for him before it gets better.

"He campaigned on a gravy train, none was found and the reality of cuts to services that residents rely on, often daily, is setting in. That has shaken public confidence in his ability to handle the job of mayor."

Ford, who resembles late Saturday Night Live comic Chris Farley, was elected last fall after a campaign whose slogan was "stop the gravy train."

The poll, with an error margin of plus or minus three per cent, indicated Torontonians have no appetite for the budget cuts being proposed. Some 84 per cent reject the idea of cutting late-night transit service; 76 per cent oppose reducing the number of child-care spaces unless the Ontario government funds them; 73 per cent think selling or closing the zoo's a bad idea and 70 per cent oppose cutting library services and hours.

Contrast Ford's slide with the apparent continued popularity of Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi, who won election at roughly the same time.

Nenshi, an academic and business consultant born of immigrant parents, was grand marshal of Calgary's gay pride parade earlier this month. Ford skipped the much larger parade in Toronto.

The election of Nenshi, a Muslim, was touted as proof Calgary had shed its cowtown stereotype.

However, like Ford, Nenshi has been wrestling with a budget deficit. He and his council pushed through a property-tax hike along with budget cuts, slashed red tape for business and pushed ahead with plans to expand Calgary's C-Train rapid-transit system.

(CBC Photo)