Mississauga residents want a subway extension to Square One, but they are much less confident that it is possible.
A recent poll from Liaison Strategies found 65 per cent of Mississauga voters supported the idea floated by mayoral candidate Bonnie Crombie, while 20 per cent opposed it.
Crombie has said she’d push for a subway extension of the Bloor-Danforth TTC line (Line 2) from Kipling Station to Sherway Gardens to downtown Mississauga, perhaps with a stop by the new Peter Gilgan Mississauga hospital.
But 35 per cent of Mississauga residents are not at all confident it will happen and 26 per cent are not very confident. Voters are split on whether the subway extension or two-way all day GO service on the Milton line is better, with 45 per cent and 44 per cent support respectively, results that reflect the polarized mayoral race with supporters of Crombie more likely to favour the subway and supporters of incumbent Carolyn Parrish more likely to favour the Milton GO line.
There is a little more optimism that GO service is possible, with recent support for the plan from Prime Minister Mark Carney and Premier Doug Ford, but there are no committed timelines. About 19 per cent of voters are not at all confident there will be all-day service on the Milton line, 24 per cent are not very confident and 25 per cent are somewhat confident, the poll found.
“The subway attracts majority support across the main candidate groups … The proposal has appeal beyond the candidate promoting it,” said Liaison Strategies principal David Valentin.
“The useful distinction is between support, priority and confidence. Most residents support a subway extension. They are evenly divided on whether it is a better investment than expanded GO service. Whether either project gets built is a separate question.”
There is a general agreement with Crombie among the leading mayoral candidates Parrish and current councillors Alvin Tedjo and Dipika Damerla that Mississauga residents would welcome a subway. But they have also cited the high cost to build a subway and the need for the support of the provincial government, in particular, to make it happen.
“We’ve been talking about this since the 1980s and nothing has gotten done. This is not within our control,” said Tedjo in a Monday night debate. Crombie defended the plan as aspirational but the kind of idea that she thinks will appeal to Ford.
Liaison surveyed a random sample of 1,000 Mississauga residents from Oct. 2 to Oct. 4 using Interactive Voice Recording technology across both landline and cellular phone networks.
