

Joshua Freeman, CP24.com





A new poll suggests that the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party under new leader Doug Ford could be poised for a return to power at Queen’s Park.

The Mainstreet Research poll released this morning finds that the Ontario PC Party currently enjoys a 21 point lead over the governing Liberals.

The poll sampled 2,003 Ontarians of voting age on March 17 and March 18 by automated telephone poll and asked them who they would vote for if the election were held today.

It found that the PC Party currently enjoys 47 percent support among decided and leaning voters, while the Liberals under Kathleen Wynne sit at 26.2 per cent. The Ontario NDP under Andrea Horwath sit at 18.6 per cent support and the Green party sits at 6.4 per cent.

“While we fielded this survey before yesterday's Throne Speech, the PCs are in pole position to get an overwhelming win in June,” Mainstreet Research President Quito Maggi said in a release attached to the poll. “This is thanks to the PCs’ large lead in nearly every region in Ontario.”

Within Toronto, the poll found the PCs sit at 37.5 per cent support, compared to 35 per cent for the Liberals; 20.3 per cent for NDP; and six per cent for the Green Party.

Looking wider at the Greater Toronto Area, it found that PC support is even stronger (49.3 per cent), nearly 20 points over the Liberals (30 per cent) and far above the NDP (12.7 per cent) or Greens (5.4 per cent). That would suggest that within the GTA, PC support is currently stronger than that of all major parties combined.

Maggi said that large point leads do sometimes disappear in elections, but the latest numbers show that the Liberals still have a distance to go if they hope to hold on to power.

“A lot can and will change when the campaign actually starts, but the Wynne Liberals find themselves far behind the Ford PCs with less than eighty days before the election,” Maggi said. “It might be a bridge too far for the Liberals to overcome.”

The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.19 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

The provincial election is set to be held on June 7.