Minority Government for Ontario

Queen's Park columnist Ian Urquhart has drawn on polling data and predicts that this fall's elections will see a minority government elected in Ontario.

The Angus-Reid poll shows the provincial Conservatives with 34 per cent support, the Liberals with 33 per cent, the New Democrats with 19 per cent support, and the Greens with 11 percent support. As far as leadership goes, the poll says that Conservative Leader John Tory is the public's preferred choice for premier, by a margin of 36 per cent to 26 per cent over the incumbent, Dalton McGuinty, with 38 per cent undecided. That means that absolutely no one thought Howard Hampton would be the best choice, although I suspect that since the NDP has absolutely no chance of forming the government, respondents were asked only to pick between McGuinty or Tory. Interestingly, an 'other' option was not provided. Has the NDP sunk that low that it has managed to become so irrelevant?

The poll also shows that 46 per cent of respondents agreed (and 34 per cent disagreed) with this statement: "If John Tory's PCs were elected into government, they would govern in the same way as Mike Harris' PC government." Apparently Howard Hampton indeed suffers from tunnel vision. Perhaps this is why no one thinks he'll be a good premier- he can't see the truth that's in front of his face.