McGuinty Liberals Stay the Course
Amidst Summer Blues

Toronto, ON - Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty and the Liberals have managed to stay the course amidst a barrage of summer blues, according to a new Ipsos Reid poll conducted on behalf of Canwest News Service, Global Television and CFRB Radio.

Despite the increase in focus on the Progressive Conservatives and newly-elected leader Tim Hudak, the fallout from the eHealth scandal and municipal strikes in cities such as Windsor and Toronto, the Liberals (45%, unchanged) continue to lead the Progressive Conservatives (31%, down 1 point) by a wide margin.

Not unexpectedly, newly-chosen PC leader Tim Hudak and his Party have yet to make a mark on the electorate across the province. However his post-convention comments that striking municipal union members in Toronto "should get a grip" had media resonance, and the first real test of the new PC machinery and messaging will be in the soon-to-be-called by-election in the Toronto riding of St. Paul's, recently vacated by McGuinty Minister Michael Bryant.

If an election were held tomorrow, the NDP under Andrea Horwath would receive support from 12% of decided voters (down 1 point), while Frank de Jong and his Green Party would receive 11% of the vote (up 1 point).

Support for the McGuinty government remains relatively strong, with 44% indicating that the `government has done a good job and deserves re-election'. In fact, this proportion is equal to that which said he deserved re-election prior to election day in the fall of 2007 - an election which gave the Liberals another solid majority.

On the other hand, nearly one half (49%) of Ontarians believe it's `time for another provincial party to take over', down 2 points from two years ago.

These are the findings of an Ipsos Reid poll conducted exclusively for Canwest News Service, Global Television and CFRB Radio from July 21 to 23, 2009. For the survey, a representative randomly selected sample of 800 adults living in Ontario was interviewed by telephone. With a sample of this size, the results are considered accurate to within 1773.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what they would have been had the entire adult population living in Ontario been polled. The margin of error will be larger within regions and for other sub-groupings of the survey population. These data were weighted to ensure that the sample's regional and age/sex composition reflects that of the actual Ontarian population according to Census data.

For more information on this news release, please contact:
John Wright
Senior Vice President
Ipsos Reid
Public Affairs
(416) 324-2002
[email protected]

About Ipsos Reid
Ipsos Reid is Canada's market intelligence leader, the country's leading provider of public opinion research, and research partner for loyalty and forecasting and modelling insights. With operations in eight cities, Ipsos Reid employs more than 600 research professionals and support staff in Canada. The company has the biggest network of telephone call centres in the country, as well as the largest pre-recruited household and online panels. Ipsos Reid's marketing research and public affairs practices offer the premier suite of research vehicles in Canada, all of which provide clients with actionable and relevant information. Staffed with seasoned research consultants with extensive industry-specific backgrounds, Ipsos Reid offers syndicated information or custom solutions across key sectors of the Canadian economy, including consumer packaged goods, financial services, automotive, retail, and technology & telecommunications. Ipsos Reid is an Ipsos company, a leading global survey-based market research group.

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