Residents of Canada’s three biggest cities were more likely to say the Trump name does not belong on buildings in their cities than people who live in other parts of the country, according to an Angus Reid Institute poll released December 18.
Nationally, 52% of poll respondents said developers should stop using the Trump name, while 44% thought it should stay. In Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal 62% were opposed to Trump’s brand being used while 38% said it wasn’t a problem.
City councillors in Vancouver and Toronto have urged developers to remove the Trump name from an existing tower in Toronto and an under-construction hotel and condominium project in Vancouver.
The pushback comes following increasingly inflammatory remarks made by real estate tycoon Donald Trump as he campaigns to become the Republican presidential nominee. Those remarks have included characterizing Mexican immigrants as criminals and proposing to close American borders to all Muslims.
Although 67% of poll respondents said Trump's statement was "bad for society" because it encourages fear and hatred of Muslims, a sizeable group —37% — said Trump's comments are good for society because he is challenging the taboo on saying things that are "politically incorrect."
Earlier this week, Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson sent a letter to Joo Kim Tiah, CEO of the Holborn Group, asking Tiah to remove the name. The company has had an agreement with the Trump Hotel Collection since June 2013 and Trump’s children, Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr., have made efforts to travel to Vancouver to market the project.
Hotel industry insiders have said it would be a costly proposition for Holborn to get out of the licensing and management deal at this point.
Read: BIV's August 2013 profile of Joo Kim Tiah
The Angus Reid poll found that younger people (aged 18-34) and women were more likely to say the Trump name should be removed, while what Angus Reid calls “narrow majorities” of men (51%) and people with incomes over $100,000 (51%) said the branding should stay on the buildings.
Asked whether the Trump brand makes the Vancouver and Toronto hotels more or less appealing, 55% of the Angus Reid survey respondents said it made them less appealing while 10% said the name made the hotels more appealing.
Even by the standards of the rarefied world of luxury hotels, the Trump brand appears to be weak, according to the 2016 Global Hotels Luxury Brand Status Index released December 17. Trump Hotel Collection hotels ranked 40th out of a survey of 40 luxury hotel brands.
The Angus Reid poll was an online survey conducted from December 10-13 among 1,530 Canadian adults. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
@jenstden
