Wynne is winning and Hudak’s a dud.

Premier Kathleen Wynne and New Democrat’s Andrea Horwath are the most popular leaders in Ontario, leaving the Progressive Conservative’s Tim Hudak in the dust, according to a new Abacus Data poll.

“I think Wynne has a lot of appeal to a lot of voters,” Abacus Data CEO David Coletto said Monday. “She’s genuine. She’s got some authenticity to her and that is a refreshing change for a lot of people compared to (former premier) Dalton McGuinty. She’s in a pretty good position relative to the other leaders.”

About 34% of respondents said they had a positive impression of Wynne while Horwath was nearly tied with her Liberal competitor at 33%. Only 22% of Ontarians view Hudak in a positive light.

“I think the last provincial campaign did a job on Tim Hudak’s personal popularity,” Coletto said. “People got to see him up close and personal and so it’s very hard, once someone gets a negative impression of you, to change that. In Toronto, it might be a mix of his personal attitudes, but also his policies.”

Horwath was well-liked during the last campaign, Coletto added, because she has been different from the other two leaders.

“She remains sort of that third option and comes off as a scrapper, which appeals to a lot of people not only in northern Ontario, but in Hamilton where she’s from,” he said.

The online survey of 1,185 Ontario residents, who are eligible to vote, was conducted May 7-9.

A random sample of panelists was invited to participate in the survey from a representative online panel of over 150,000 Canadians. Since the online survey was not a random, probability-based sample, a margin of error could not be calculated.

The survey also noted while McGuinty “hurt Liberal fortunes and support,” Wynne’s personal popularity seems to be lifting support for the Liberals.

“She’s the newest leader right now and there’s always a novelty with new leaders,” Coletto said. “That doesn’t mean, I think, these numbers will stay this way for her, but that being said, my impression is she’s trying to do things differently.

“We did this survey right at the heat of her testimony at the gas plant cancellation, and despite all the attention around that, her numbers are really holding.”

jenny.yuen@sunmedia.ca