TORONTO — The New Democrats have the same 37 per cent voter support as the Progressive Conservatives even though most people believe the Tories will win the Ontario election come June 7, a new poll suggests.
According to the Leger poll being released Thursday, the struggling Liberals trail with 21 per cent support.
While a sizable number of voters — more than one third of those asked — have yet to make a final decision about where their X will go come voting day, the survey indicates Andrew Horwath and her New Democrats are far and away the favoured second choice of voters.
The poll finds that 63 per cent of Liberals would vote NDP as second choice, while 40 per cent of Tories now led by Doug Ford said the same.
Leger executive vice-president Christian Bourque said that’s a reflection of the antipathy respondents feel toward the Liberals, led by Kathleen Wynne.
“You can move from right to left as long as you avoid the Liberals,” Bourque said in an interview. “What I’m seeing here is that if there is still movement between now and election day — or even over the last weekend — it should favour the NDP at this point in the game.”
Horwath also leads handily in terms of who voters think would make the best premier. In all, 28 per cent of those asked named her, while 23 per cent — most men — said Ford. Wynne earned the nod from a mere 12 per cent. Horwath’s approval rating crosses all age groups.
Additionally, asked which leader has run the best campaign, 34 per cent opted to name Horwath, while 23 per cent gave Ford the nod and only nine per cent chose Wynne. Even among Conservative supporters, 59 per cent said Ford had run the best campaign.
“That’s not a whopping number,” Bourque said. “If you look at the Liberals, only 39 per cent feel Kathleen Wynne has led the best campaign.”
Bourque says the belief the Conservatives will win — 40 per cent indicated as much while just 13 per cent said the same for the other two parties — is likely a reflection of a narrative in place for month.
“That’s what they’ve been told since the start of the campaign — that the Ontario PCs would win,” Bourque said. “It’s probably fuelled the NDP vote (and) it probably takes the Liberals out of the equation.”
Despite Horwath’s performance and her party’s favoured second-choice status among supporters of the other two parties, Bourque said it is still too unpredictable to predict the New Democrats will end up in first place — at least in terms of the popular vote.
“It’s all up for grabs,” Bourque said.
The online Leger survey of 1,008 people eligible to vote in the Ontario election was done May 18 to May 22. The company says it used 2016 census data to weight the results by age, sex, mother tongue, region and education to ensure what it says is a representative sample of the population.
However, the polling industry’s professional body, the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association, says online surveys cannot be assigned a margin of error as they are not a random sample and therefore are not necessarily representative of the whole population.
Colin Perkel, The Canadian Press
Well it’s better than a private two tier health plan that Ford is planning , he is a mini Trump , his campaign is already under scrutiny because of the bullshit and lies
Can someone explain the difference between the NDP and liberals. Both want to tax us and the province to no end
Conservatives win in a landslide…. book it.
Oh God, Horwath is a fooking moron, so are her other counter parts. Ontario is in trouble these doofs get in. The collation of Liberal and NDP will rape Ontario dry no spit.
Graphic, hahaha, if they get elected, you ll have a bunch of magical wizards pulling money from everyone, and everywhere to support their sanctuary country. Health-care wait times will sky rocket, and all you fools who want this will be crying,”What happened!”
Same thing with you glory boy
Truduuhuhuhuh, no answers, no fooking clue! Same thing with Bill, and Wynne.
Horwath and her views are terrifying, and her plans are also magical wonderments.
New delusional Party? No Fricken thanks!
Must be the same polls Hilliary used 😉
I am surprised the Liberals are doing so well.
Me too…
Anyone but Wynne
Anyone voting conservative is just silly. Go NDP!
I think the amazing stat coming out of this poll is the fact that the Liberals some how garnered 21 percent.
Should polls even be allowed? Do they influence how we vote?
Do not believe that poll
Check out Alberta and B.C. if anyone thinks NDP is the answer you will be sadly mistaken
Alberta is in the worst debt it has ever been in since trudeau senior Think about it !
It wasn’t very long ago that they were doing so well, Albertans came home to a dividend cheque from the province in their mailbox.
Why do you not believe in the poll results? Is it simply because you do not like the poll result?
Never mind Russian collusion….the NDP commies are right in our back yard. SMH
Remember to vote for the PC party otherwise you will throwing your vote away and will be re-electing the money squandering brainless Fiberals. We don’t want that to happen. We cannot afford that to happen.
NDP ALL THE WAY
I would like to vote for the NOP(Sandy Holmberg) but it would takeaway from the NDP becoming our majority government…Please fix the bullshit that has been happening by the Liberal’s!!
Right… and have ON become a sanctuary province where they override federal immigration law to those who enter Canada illegally and provide free shelter- that our lower income folks desperately require; free health care, that’s limited, just ask any diabetes person, senior or pts military vet; while jack up social services costs. Lets deal with our Canadians first. Regarding the poll things are tightening but actually what really matters is the vote distribution and here the PCs hold a commanding lead
John damn right! Ontarians first! I’m not paying for everyone else to come here, nuts to that shite.
shit were screwed
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