

CTV Kitchener





With about 19 months to go until the next election, Premier Kathleen Wynne is significantly trailing the leaders of Ontario’s two opposition parties in personal popularity, according to a new poll.

The poll, which was released this week by Mainstreet Research and Postmedia, pegged the premier’s approval rating at 15 per cent.

That’s in sharp contrast to the approval ratings registered by NDP leader Andrea Horwath (59 per cent) and Progressive Conservative leader Patrick Brown (51 per cent), as well as the 67 per cent of respondents who said they disapprove of Wynne's performance.

When it comes to parties overall, 43 per cent of respondents said they had decided to vote for or were leaning toward voting for the PCs, as opposed to 27 per cent for the NDP and 25 per cent for the Liberals.

In a written statement released with the poll, Mainstreet president Quito Maggi described the Liberals performance as “(continuing) to plumb new depths.”

“There is very little good news for the current government and it may get worse as the effects of the recent charges against Ontario Liberal Party staff and operatives continue to dominate headlines,” he said.

Last week, two Ontario Liberal Party workers were charged with bribery under the Election Act in connection with allegations that they offered a potential candidate in a 2015 byelection in Sudbury a job or appointment to get him to step aside.

The poll was based on a survey of 2,524 Ontario residents conducted on Nov. 2. It is considered accurate plus or minus 1.95 per cent, 19 times out of 20.

With files from CTV Toronto