Key Takeaways:
- Before the Ontario election next week, Doug Ford and the Progressive Conservatives have increased their lead.
- With 6.3 percent of the vote, the Green Party is fourth, followed by the New Blue Party with 3 percent and the Ontario Party with 1.7 percent.
- Overall, healthcare remained the top issue, with 25% of respondents indicating it as their top concern in the province.
According to a recent poll, Doug Ford and the Progressive Conservative party have expanded their advantage ahead of the Ontario election next week.
CTV News and CP24 commissioned a Nanos Research poll of 504 adult voters conducted over the weekend.
It indicated that the Conservatives maintain a commanding lead among committed voters, with the NDP as well as Liberal parties vying for second place.
According to the pollster, 37.3 percent of decided voters want to vote for the PCs this week, up from 36.1 percent last week and 35.4 percent before.
The Liberals are still in second place with 28%, but Andrea Horwath and the NDP have gained three points in the last week & are now at 23.2 percent among definite voters.
The Green Party is in fourth place with 6.3 percent, followed by the New Blue Party with 3% and the Ontario Party with 1.7 percent.
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In the Greater Toronto Area, Ford and the Conservatives lead the Liberals by barely four points. However, the party leads the Liberals by 15 points in the rest of Ontario.
Despite some criticism for holding fewer public appearances than the other candidates, Ford appears to be gaining popularity as the campaign progresses.
According to the most recent Nanos poll, 33.8 percent of respondents chose the PC leader as their favorite candidate for president, up from 29.9% at the start of the campaign.
Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca came in second with 23.4 percent (up 1.8 points from last week), followed by Horwath with 17.5 percent (down 0.5 percentage points).
Mike Schreiner of the Green Party is in fourth place with 9.8% of the vote. After being identified as the preferred premier by only 4.3 percent of respondents on May 2, he has witnessed the most improvements during the campaign.
According to the study, respondents tended to think Schreiner’s campaign performance was superior to those of the other candidates.
He received a 5.7-out-of-10 rating, compared to 5.1 for Ford and 4.5 for Del Duca and Horwath.
“You know, many Ontarians were unsure at the starting of the campaign which they preferred as premier,” Nik Nanos, the founder as well as chief data scientist of Nanos research, told CP24. “But right now Ford is up 4 points from the start of the campaign; Del Duca is up 6 points, Schreiner is up 6 points, Andrea Horvath is the only provincial party leader who is down compared to the start of the campaign.” “They’ve been able to gain traction with many the party leaders.” On the other hand, Horvath has seen a decrease in his numbers since the beginning of May.”
The rising cost of living is becoming a major concern.
Meanwhile, the cost of living is becoming a big factor to weigh at the polls when it comes to concerns.
According to the most recent Nanos poll, 18.9% of respondents now consider inflation their most pressing concern, up from 11.9 percent at the start of the campaign.
Healthcare remained the top problem overall, with 25% of respondents citing it as their most pressing concern in the province.
The environment was named as the most important concern by 9.7% of respondents, while housing (6.8%), the economy (6.7%), education (4.7%), and gasoline prices (3.7%) also were mentioned often.
“In addition to healthcare, this election appears to be about the cost of living, rising petrol prices, and how Ontarians are simply trying to pay their bills,” Nanos said.
On June 2, Ontarians will go to the polls.
Source: CTV news
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