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A full 43 per cent of Ontarians would vote for the PCs, while 24 per cent would support both the Liberals and the NDP, the Nov. 21 poll shows.

“The longer this goes on with (the Liberals) being so far back it makes it harder and harder for them to recover,” said Forum Research president Lorne Bozinoff in an interview. “They need a serious, serious reboot … they need to take fairly substantive measures.

“They’ve just been around a long time and I think people are getting a sense it’s time for a change,” he said, adding the party will have been in power for 15 years by the time the 2018 election rolls around.

Of Wynne, he said, “I don’t think she’s done a good job of connecting with people for a long time and this is partly a continuation of that.”

Patrick Brown could win this by default.

“She hasn’t’ really responded quickly enough to some of these more recent concerns,” like high hydro rates, he said.

That puts PC leader Patrick Brown in a great position, as Bozinoff says he basically needs to sit back and not make any mistakes. While 49 per cent still don’t know who he is, 28 per cent who do, like him, compared to 23 per cent, who don’t.

The NDP’s support has been flat since the last election, so any Liberal downfall would most likely benefit the Tories, Bozinoff said. However, he said they have to be careful of treading too far to the right or touching any socially conservative issues.