Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty continues to edge out Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak as Ontario's choice to be the next premier, a new poll suggests.

According to the latest Nanos Research survey for CTV and The Globe and Mail, 29 per cent of respondents believe McGuinty is the best choice for premier, compared to 25 per cent for Hudak.

"On the best premier front, it's still a relatively tight race," pollster Nik Nanos told CTV News.

Despite a rise on her party's overall support, NDP Leader Andrea Horwath sits well back at 14.6 per cent support.

"The percentage of Ontarians that believe she would make the best premier has stayed within the margin of error of the poll," Nanos said. "We've seen the NDP party numbers go up, but we haven't seen a corresponding increase in the numbers in the leader of the NDP."

While Hudak and McGuinty have similar support among men, the Liberal leader has a 10 percentage point lead over his Tory opponent among women, at about 30 per cent to 20 per cent.

However, after a summer of negative ads aimed at the Liberal and Progressive Conservative leaders, Ontarians are even more unsure about their choice for premier.

In the latest poll, 7.1 per cent of respondents said no one running was the best choice for premier and 22.1 per cent were unsure of their choice.

Only one in two votes firm

The Nanos poll also suggests only one in two committed voters describes their choice as firm.

The breakdown among committed voters is as follows:

  • Firm: 49.3 per cent
  • Somewhat firm: 38.8 per cent
  • Somewhat not firm: 3.0 per cent
  • Not firm: 5.9 per cent
  • Unsure: 2.9 per cent

"Voters are probably going to take a wait-and-see attitude in terms of the party leaders and how they perform over the next few weeks," Nanos said.

Poll methodology: Between August 30th and September 1st 2011, Nanos Research conducted a random telephone survey of 1,005 Ontarians 18 years and older. A random telephone survey of 1,005 Ontarians is accurate plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. For 826 committed voters, the margin of accuracy is plus or minus 3.4 points, 19 times out of 20.