Nearly four out of 10 Ontarians plan to vote for Ford government in June: poll

Nearly four of 10 Ontarians say that they would vote for Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative party in June’s election, suggesting that another majority government could be in reach.

A new Angus Reid poll of 1,063 adult Ontarians has found that 37 per cent of decided voters intend to vote for the Tories in June’s election compared to 29 per cent who say that they will vote NDP and 25 per cent who intend to vote Liberal. A further four per cent said that they would cast a vote for Mike Schreiner’s Green Party.

Support for Ford’s PC party was higher among those living in rural Ontario (47 per cent) and those with a high school education or less (42 per cent). There was also a significant gender gap with 46 per cent of men saying they would vote for the PC party and only 28 per cent of women.

“Premier Doug Ford has reversed a trend of declining approval dating back to the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. His party, too, is seeing a reversal of a trend of declining support, putting some separation between him and the two other parties contending to run the province in this summer’s election,” a statement from Angus Reid detailing the results reads. “Last election, the PCPO won 76 seats and a majority with 40 per cent of the popular vote. Another majority may be necessary to keep the PCPO in power.”

Ford’s approval rating rose to 43 per cent in the latest poll, up 13 points from January when only 30 per cent of Ontarians said that they strongly or moderately approved of his performance as premier.

The poll, however, does point to areas of vulnerability for the Tories ahead of the June 2 election.

On housing affordability, 86 per cent of respondents said that Ford is doing a poor or very poor job while 70 per cent of respondents said the same, with regards to healthcare.

Ford’s government got better marks on its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic but a slight majority of respondents (53 per cent) still said that they were doing a poor or very poor job.

Nearly six out of 10 respondents (58 per cent) also said that the Ford government was doing a poor or very poor job of managing the economy.

“At least half of Ontarians say the government has done a poor job on every key file,” Angus Reid notes.

The Ontario-specific results are part of a wider Angus Reid survey involving 5,000 Canadians, who are members of an online panel. It was conducted March 10-15 and is considered accurate to within two percentage points, 19 times out of 20.