Doug Ford's approval rating drops to 37 per cent, poll finds

Ontario Premier Doug Ford makes an announcement in Brampton, Ont., on Tuesday, March 15, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

Premier Doug Ford’s approval rating has dropped to its lowest point in two years, with June’s provincial election now just months away.

Maru Public Opinion surveyed 1,977 adult Ontarians about Ford’s performance as premier as part of a wider national poll.

A total of 37 per cent of respondents said that they either strongly or moderately approve of Ford’s performance as premier compared to 57 per cent who said that they disapproved. A further seven per cent of respondents said that they weren’t sure.

Ford’s approval rating is down four points from the last time Maru Public Opinion surveyed Ontarians in December.

It should, however, be noted that it is not far off the 40 per cent approval rating that Ford had immediately after his election in 2018.

“In Ontario, election results of 37 per cent get you a majority government (where his approval rating is right now). The latest voter intention polls show him at this level with the opposition split,” the pollster said in a report attached to the latest numbers.

Ford’s approval rating leaves him as one of Canada’s least popular premiers, ahead of only Alberta’s Jason Kenney and Manitoba’s Heather Stefanson.

British Columbia Premier John Horgan and Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston are at the other end of the spectrum with approval ratings of 64 per cent.

In Ford’s case it is his lowest approval rating since March, 2020 when only 30 per cent of Ontarians supported the job he was doing as premier.

It is also far off the 62 per cent approval rating he enjoyed in the early days of the pandemic in June 2020.

The latest poll was conducted using an online panel between Feb. 12 and 23. It is weighted by education, age, gender, and region to match the population and is considered accurate to within 1.4 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.