THUNDER BAY – The latest Nanos Poll on Ontario politics is showing that the Ontario Progressive Conservatives are currently leading in the province with 41% support, followed by the McGuinty Liberals at 34%, the NDP at 19% and the Greens at 5%. Of note, the NDP has been the only party significantly trending up lately, registering a six point increase since February 2011.
The Ontario New Democrats’ positive showing was also reflected in another measure of the Nanos poll. Asking Ontarians which of the party leaders would make the best Premier, Hudak led with 30.8%, followed by McGuinty with 25.3%. Although a distant third, NDP’s Horwath was selected as the best Premier by 15.7% of the Ontarians surveyed , a six point increase from March 2011. Schreiner, the leader of the Ontario Greens, was last with 2.3% of Ontarians viewing him as best Premier.
On the top issue front, Nanos’ latest Ontario poll showed that most Ontarians remained preoccupied with healthcare (34.1%) , followed by jobs/the economy (14.7%) and education (10.9%). Of note, gas prices as top issue of concern (currently 8.7%) has been on the rise since the past wave of research, registering a 3.6 point increase during that time. This denotes that Ontarians’ top-of-mind concerns seem to be leaning toward things that affect their day-to-day lives.