The governing provincial Liberals are closing the gap on the poll-leading Progressive Conservatives at the expense of the New Democrats and the Greens, a new survey suggests.

Patrick Brown’s Tories are at 42 per cent, ahead of Premier Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals at 35 per cent, Andrea Horwath’s NDP at 17 per cent, and Mike Schreiner’s Greens at 5 per cent, according to Forum Research Inc.

Last month’s Forum poll had the Tories at 40 per cent, the Grits at 30 per cent, the NDP at 21 per cent, and the Greens at 8 per cent.

Forum president Lorne Bozinoff noted the Liberals are at their highest level in his monthly public opinion survey since Jan. 30, 2015 when they were at 37 per cent.

“It’s not over till it’s over in politics,” Bozinoff said Wednesday of the Grits, who mark their 13th anniversary in power this October and will vie for a fifth term in the spring 2018 election.

Just as Wynne is likely benefitting from the popularity of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals, Horwarth’s New Democrats suffer from the federal NDP’s problems.

“The NDP, I think they’ve caught a bit of the federal malaise,” the pollster said, referring the New Democrats’ dumping Thomas Mulcair as leader in April after last October’s election.

Bozinoff noted that left-leaning Liberal governments at Queen’s Park and in Ottawa have hurt the NDP by luring away traditional progressive voters.

“You know they used to say the NDP was Liberals in a hurry . . . well, the Liberals have arrived. They’re here,” he said, noting Wynne may have received a bounce from the deal last month to enhance the Canada Pension Plan.

“The CPP was a coup and it’s going to play well in Ontario.”

Still, Horwath remains the most popular of the three major party leaders.

The NDP chief has a 33 per cent approval rating compared to 31 per cent disapproval and 36 per cent with no opinion.

Brown has 29 per cent approval, 25 per cent disapproval, and 46 per cent unsure.

Wynne has 22 per cent approval, a staggering 66 per cent disapproval, and 12 per cent uncertain.

In terms of who would make the best premier, Wynne was at 16 per cent, Brown at 26 per cent, Horwath at 15 per cent with 27 per cent of respondents saying “none of these” and 16 per cent didn’t know.

While the poll results suggest the Conservatives would form a minority government if an election were held now, Bozinoff said a “depressed NDP vote” is problematic if the Tories hope to dethrone the Liberals in two years.

“The PC lead has shrunk since last month and this may be related to Patrick Brown’s seeming inability to craft a recognizable political persona for himself. He needs to be much more prominent in the public consciousness,” he said, emphasizing “the Tories really need the NDP to come through.”

Using interactive voice-response telephone calls, Forum polled 1,183 Ontarians on Tuesday with results considered accurate to within three percentage points 19 times out of 20.

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Where appropriate, poll results have been statistically weighted by age, region, and other variables to ensure the sample reflects the actual population according to the latest census data.

Forum houses its complete results in the data library of the University of Toronto political science department.

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