Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives are trailing the leaderless Liberals by five points, according to a new poll, as the premier’s popularity plummets amid a spending scandal.
New public opinion research from Liaison Strategies has the Liberals at 38 per cent, ahead of the governing PCs, who sit at 33 per cent. The NDP trail at 21 per cent, with the Greens at three per cent.
“The Liberals continue to lead in Ontario, but this is not a runaway race,” Liaison Strategies principal David Valentin said.
“The Liberals are unchanged from our June tracker at 38 per cent among decided and leaning voters, while the PCs are down two points to 33 per cent and the NDP is up per cent points to 24 per cent. The movement is small, but it is still movement away from Ford and toward the opposition parties.”
The poll’s findings appear to highlight Ford’s personal popularity problems.
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Just 24 per cent of those polled said they approved of the job Ford was doing, compared to 72 per cent who disapproved. The figures are a drop of an approval rating of just over 30 per cent at the beginning of the year.
The tough numbers for the government come against the backdrop of a growing spending scandal.
Former tourism minister Stan Cho resigned last week after billing the taxpayer some $16,000 for Toronto hotel stays, despite living six km from the legislature. He also billed his riding association thousands for hotels and restaurants.
Three Peel Region MPPs spent tens of thousands on hotel rooms in downtown Toronto, while internal emails reveal Ford’s house leader and government whip told MPPs they were cleared to charge the public for downtown hotels.
“Those numbers are landing in the middle of an expense scandal, and that matters politically,” Valentin said.
“When an incumbent premier is already at 24 per cent approval, stories about MPPs billing taxpayers for Toronto hotel rooms are exactly the kind of thing that reinforces a bad frame.”
Valentin said cost of living problems made perception worse.
“The damaging part is not just the dollar amount, it is the contrast,” he added.
“Ontarians are being squeezed by household costs, and now they are seeing a government explain why members who live near Queen’s Park were billing hotel stays. That is a rough fairness test for any government, but especially one with Ford’s approval numbers.”
Seems low, I think many are apathetic though
Lets all be distracted from the abysmal handling of the economy this past “lost decade” by the Federal Liberals.
Lard Ford is a total joke. Will be glad when he is gone. Hit the bricks.
A good job in difficult times? Funniest thing I’ve heard all week. Ford is a corrupt politician who is more concerned about enriching his corporate donors, making back room deals, and growing Ontario’s debt, all while destroying education and healthcare. Fiscally conservative? He’s ballooned Ontario’s debt through his bad deals, policies, and mismanagement of tax payers’ money.
Doug Ford, the pretend Conservative, needs to go. Captain Canada has become what he and his brother use to hate and speak out against. Cya Doggie
Doug is doing a great job in difficult times. Not sure where you are polling. Maybe the teachers convention.
Dear Doug, fiscal responsibility got you elected. Had you told people you would give the green light for anyone in your party to use are tax dollars to party with well could you imagine what you would have said if Wynne or McGuinty did the same? Common now we don’t want libs back in
You have to be pretty pathetic to be less popular than the Liberals in Ontario
Then again the country is full of intellectually lazy and emotionally unstable idiots