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New Democrat Andrea Horwath remains the most popular leader at Queen’s Park, at 34 per cent support, compared to 26 per cent for Patrick Brown, the PC leader, which is actually a slight drop from the 29 per cent support he earned in July.

To make matters worse for the Liberals, only 14 per cent of respondents said Wynne would make the best premier, with 25 per cent preferring Brown and 17 per cent Horwath. The biggest chunk, 27 per cent, wanted someone else entirely.

The survey of 1,097 was teeming with bad news for the provincial Liberals, who secured just 28 per cent support, compared to 23 per cent for the New Democrats, six per cent for the Green Party and 41 per cent for the PCs — enough to potentially take the premier’s office back from the Liberals for the first time since 2003.

“The beneficiary, however, appears to be the NDP, rather than the PCs, although a majority would be theirs if the election were held today,” Bozinoff said.

But the election isn’t today; it’s still two years out, with the vote expected to be set sometime in the late spring or early summer of 2018. The survey shows that nearly half — 49 per cent — of voters still don’t know much about Brown.

That can both work for and against him: it means the Liberals have yet to frame him in voters’ minds as another big bad Tory, but it also means he has yet to spark their imaginations. Yet, given Wynne and the Liberals’ low approval, Brown might be best to fly under the radar until election time in order to present himself as the best possible alternative.