Ontarians favour the right of students to form gay-straight alliance clubs in Catholic schools by a margin of almost two to one, a new poll suggests.

The Forum Research survey also found more than half of Ontario residents — 53 per cent — oppose the public funding of Catholic schools with 40 per cent supportive and 6 per cent unsure.

As the issue of gay-straight alliances dominates debate around new anti-bullying legislation, the poll concluded people are accepting of the anti-homophobia clubs designed to promote tolerance.

Fifty-one per cent agreed that students in publicly funded Catholic schools should be allowed to form clubs under that sometimes contentious name with 28 per cent opposed and 21 per cent undecided.

“Now that people are more familiar with them, there’s more support for them,” Forum president Lorne Bozinoff told the Star on Tuesday.

Forum’s interactive voice response telephone survey of 1,072 Ontarians was conducted Monday.

Bozinoff said it is difficult to say whether high-profile opposition to gay-straight alliances from some Catholic educators has had an impact on support for public funding of the religious schools, which is enshrined in the constitution.

“This is a killer issue in Ontario,” he said of separate school funding. “No one politically is going to go anywhere near this. It’s explosive and uncontrollable.”

Premier Dalton McGuinty, whose opposition to a Progressive Conservative scheme to extend funding to other faith-based schools helped his Liberals win the 2007 election, said he’s “confident” the controversy can be resolved.

“It’s really important that when our kids go to school that they are welcomed there, that they are supported there, that they are accepted for who they are and that they be able to establish these gay-straight alliances, the student-support groups, call them whatever name that you want,” McGuinty told reporters at a St. Clair Ave. West seniors’ home Tuesday.

While Catholic teachers have generally been supportive of the alliances, trustees and many parents have opposed them as not being in accordance with church teachings.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said she’s “very concerned” the Liberals’ anti-bullying legislation does not specifically force Catholic schools to allow the clubs to be called gay-straight alliances.

“That’s something that sends the wrong message to kids that are gay, lesbian, queer, or trans-gendered or straight, who are wanting to put together gay-straight alliances,” she said.

Forum’s poll found that Horwath remains the most popular provincial political leader. She enjoys a 50 per cent approval rating compared with McGuinty’s 27 per cent and Tory Leader Tim Hudak’s 20 per cent.

In terms of party support, the Tories are at 34 per cent, the NDP at 32 per cent, the Liberals at 27 per cent and the Greens at 5 per cent.

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“It’s clear that Ms. Horwath outperforms her party in popularity while Mr. Hudak underperforms his party considerably. The premier, on the other hand, is exactly as popular as his party,” said Bozinoff.

Within his own party, Hudak has a lacklustre 44 per cent approval. That compares poorly to McGuinty’s 77 per cent Liberal support and Horwath’s 79 per cent backing among New Democrats.

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