Doug Ford and the Progressive Conservative Party have expanded their leadership ahead of next week’s Ontario election, a new poll suggests.
The Nanos Research survey of 504 adult voters was commissioned by CTV News and CP24 and was conducted over the weekend.
He found that the Conservatives continue to have a comfortable lead among determined voters, with the NDP and Liberal parties in a race for second place.
The poll said that 37.3% of voters decided in their last poll intend to vote for the PC, an increase of 36.1% from last week and 35.4% from the previous week.
The Liberals remain in second place with 28%, but are now being challenged by Andrea Horwath and the NPD, who picked up three points in the last week and are now at 23.2% among determined voters.
The Green Party is in fourth place with 6.3%, while the New Blue Party is in three percent and the Ontario party with 1.7%.
The race is down to the GTA, where Ford and the Conservatives only have a four-point lead over the Liberals. But in the rest of Ontario, the party has a 15-point lead over the Liberals.
Ford also appears to be gaining popularity as the campaign progresses, though it faces some criticism for holding fewer public events than other leaders.
The latest Nanos poll suggests that 33.8% of respondents chose the PC leader as their preferred option for the first edition, compared to 29.9% at the start of the campaign.
Liberal leader Steven Del Duca was second with 23.4% (1.8 percentage points more than last week), while Horwath was third with 17.5% (0.5 percentage points less).
Mike Schreiner of the Green Party is fourth with 9.8%. He has seen the biggest gains throughout the campaign after being initially listed as the preferred prime minister by only 4.3 percent of respondents on May 2.
The survey also found that respondents tended to perceive Schreiner’s performance in the campaign as superior to other leaders.
He was given an average score of 5.7 out of 10, compared to 5.1 for Ford and 4.5 for Del Duca and Horwath.
“You know, a lot of Ontarians weren’t sure at the start of the campaign who they preferred as prime minister, but right now Ford is up four points from the start of the campaign, Del Duca is up six points, Schreiner is up six points., the only provincial party leader who is down compared to the start of the campaign is Andrea Horvath, “Nik Nanos, who is the founder and chief data scientist at Nanos Research, told CP24. “Some of the leaders of the party have been able to do a little traction. But for Horvath on a personal level, not so much compared to those figures in early May. “
The cost of living continues to gain ground as a major issue
Meanwhile, when it comes to issues, the cost of living continues to gain ground as an important consideration at the polls.
The latest Nanos survey found that 18.9% of respondents now identify inflation as their biggest problem, compared to 11.9% at the start of the campaign.
Health care remains the main problem in general, with 25% of respondents identifying it as their most important problem at the provincial level.
9.7% of respondents identified the environment as the main problem, while housing (6.8%), the economy (6.7%), education (4.7%) and fuel prices (3.7%) were also frequently mentioned.
“These elections, in addition to focusing on health care, seem to be about the cost of living, the rising cost of gas and how Ontarians are just trying to pay their bills,” he said. Nanos.
Ontarians go to the polls on June 2.
METHODOLOGY
Nanos conducted a randomized double-frame RDD (landline and mobile line) random online and telephone survey of 504 Ontario residents aged 18 and over between May 21 and May 22, 2022 as part of ‘a follow-up survey. Participants were randomly recruited by telephone through live agents and administered online survey. The results were statistically verified and weighted by age and gender using the most recent census information and the sample is geographically stratified to be representative of Ontario.
People were called randomly by randomly dialing digits with up to five callbacks.
The margin of error of a random survey of 504 Ontario residents is ± 4.4 percentage points, 19 times 20.