Doug Ford’s approval rating slips to lowest level in 9 months: Angus Reid
Posted September 22, 2022 11:55 am.
Last Updated September 22, 2022 12:04 pm.
Doug Ford’s approval rating amongst other premiers has fallen to its lowest level in nine months, according to a new Angus Reid survey.
Ford’s approval rating sits at 41 per cent, down four points from when the last survey was taken back in June just after he secured a majority win in the provincial election. It is well off the high of 69 per cent approval Ford enjoyed at the start of the pandemic in March 2020.
Angus Reid cites “speculation about the province’s interest in expanding private health care” as the primary reason for the drop.
The Ford government recently passed legislation allowing hospitals to transfer patients to a “temporary” home while they await space in their preferred home. Anyone refusing the move could face costs of up to $400 a day
As well, the province is in the midst of negotiations with teachers unions over new contracts. While promising a raise above the one per cent cap that was imposed when the Conservatives first came into power, Ford has yet to say what that figure will be. A proposal tabled last month to one of the unions offered a two per cent raise to education workers making less than $40,000 a year and a 1.25 per cent raise to everyone else. The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) – which represents 55,000 education support workers – has asked the province for annual raises of 11.7 per cent.
Graph showing Doug Ford’s approval rating among Ontarians since he became premier. (Courtesy Angus Reid Institute)
Among the rest of the Canadian premiers, Saskatchewan’s Scott Moe enjoys the highest approval rating, 57 per cent – up six points from the last survey.
Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston is next at 53 per cent, although that is a nine-point slide from the last published survey, and he is down 20 points overall since March 2022.
Outgoing B.C. Premier John Horgan is up three points to 51 per cent – the only other premier in the survey to receive more than 50 per cent support.
The survey was conducted online from Sept. 19 – 21, 2022, among a representative randomized sample of 3,941 Canadian adults who are members of Angus Reid Forum and carries a margin of error of plus or minus 1.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
