As Donald Trump's trade war grinds on, support for Doug Ford's PCs hits new high, poll suggests
In fact, Ford's three-term Progressive Conservatives have never been higher in
Abacus Data's tracking poll
.
Conversely, Marit Stiles's New Democrats are at an all-time low in the research firm's monthly survey.
The Tories,
re-elected Feb. 27 with 43 per cent of the popular vote
, sat at 50 per cent support in the poll, ahead of Bonnie Crombie's Liberals at 28 per cent while Stiles' NDP languished at 13 per cent and Mike Schreiner's Greens were at six per cent.
'It's all good news here for the premier and the PC government right now,' Abacus president David Coletto said in an interview Thursday.
Coletto noted the ongoing trade war launched by U.S. President Donald Trump is helping Ford's political fortunes, much as the tariff tiff has boosted Prime Minister Mark Carney's federal Liberals.
'Because Premier Ford has been so focused on responding to Trump from day one … he's really come to be seen as this stable force that's giving enough people in the province confidence that he's focused on the things they want him to be focused on,' he said.
'Despite concerns around the health system or affordability, they aren't blaming him or his government for those pain points in their life.'
Abacus surveyed 1,000 Ontarians from July 10 through July 15 using online panels based on the Lucid exchange platform. While opt-in polls cannot be assigned a margin of error, for comparison purposes, a random sample of this size would have one of plus or minus 3.09 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
It was conducted before Ford hosted Carney and the premiers at the
annual Council of the Federation summit in Huntsville
, which dominated the domestic news earlier this week.
Much was made of the fact that the rookie prime minister, who is also performing well in public-opinion polls,
stayed over at the premier's Muskoka cottage Monday night
.
'There's an alignment that clearly exists in how both Ottawa and Queen's Park are viewing this moment. In a crisis, Canadians are looking to their leaders. People are looking for stability in a world of uncertainty' said Coletto.
That can make for difficult political terrain for opposition leaders like Crombie,
who faces a Liberal leadership review in September
, and Stiles to navigate.
'At 28 per cent, the Liberals under Crombie are where they were at last month. That's a little bit lower than (the 30 per cent of votes) they got in the election,' said the pollster.
'These numbers aren't great news, but they're not bad news. They show that she's making progress and her impressions are improving,' he added, pointing out the party is 'holding its support and it has as large as an accessible pool of voters as the Conservatives do.'
That's a reference to 54 per cent of respondents saying they would consider voting Liberal while 53 per cent would look at the Tories and 40 per cent would think about casting a ballot for the NDP.
'Even though (Crombie is) not the leader of the opposition, she's certainly attracts more attention and is more well known in the province (than Stiles).'
The provincial New Democrats are the Official Opposition in the legislature despite finishing with 18.5 per cent of the popular vote in February.
At 13 per cent, the NDP is down from its previous low of 14 per cent
last month
.
'If the Ontario Liberals have benefited from a halo effect from Carney, then the provincial NDP has had the opposite. The anchor of the federal NDP collapse has continued to pull that party down,' he said.
'It's not that Marit Stiles is personally any more disliked than she was. It's just the NDP is receding in a lot of Ontarians minds, and so that that's going to be a real challenge for the provincial party, unless the federal one gets its act together,' said Coletto.
In terms of personal popularity, Ford was at 46 per cent positive, 33 per cent negative for a plus 13 per cent favourability rating with 19 per cent of respondents neutral and two per cent unsure.
Stiles was at 28 per cent positive, 24 per cent negative for plus four per cent with 30 per cent neutral and 18 per cent uncertain.
Schreiner was at 25 per cent positive and 21 per cent negative for plus four per cent with 34 per cent neutral and 21 per cent unsure.
Crombie was at 33 per cent positive and 32 per cent negative for plus one per cent with 24 per cent neutral and 11 per cent uncertain.
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The Hill
an hour ago
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