A recent survey shows Ontario Premier Doug Ford is losing support because of his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic— particularly among younger voters — just months before June’s provincial election.
A new poll showed only one in three Ontarians approve of the job he is doing, an approval rating that has dropped to the lowest level of his tenure as premier.
The Angus Reid Institute surveyed 1,081 people in Ontario and found that only 30 per cent approve of the job Ford is doing as premier, while 67 per cent disapprove.
The survey of 1,081 people showed Ford was doing better among older Ontarians aged 55 and up, where he had a 52 per cent approval rating. However, his approval rating among people aged 18 to 34 was 26 per cent and at 38 per cent among those aged 35 to 54.
The survey, taken throughout the province from the start of the new year to Jan. 17, has a margin of error of three percentage points. It showed 37 per cent of the respondents thought Ford did “a very bad job” overall in handling the COVID-19 pandemic, compared to six per cent who thought he did a very good job.
Angus Reid suggested the results were influenced by Ontario delaying the reopening of schools by two weeks after the winter break, and by continuing a pattern of closures wearing on the province’s parents.
“Children in Ontario have spent more time in online school throughout the pandemic than other students across the country, as parents express a desire for a more balanced approach leaning towards keeping schools open for in-class learning,” said the company in a release accompanying the poll results.
Pollsters said business owners and workers appear upset with renewed restrictions on indoor dining, gyms, theatres and large events, while health-care workers are again dealing with surging hospitalizations of patients with COVID.
“All of this likely influences the negative assessment Ontarians offer Ford on his handling of the pandemic,” Angus Reid stated.
Ryerson University’s political science professor John Wright said the results reflected the premier’s poor ability to be consistent.
“The premier has struggled in being a leader that is consistent in what he says or does. He has always been a polarizing figure due to the rough history of the Ford family, like former mayor Rob Ford,” Wright said.
“When the premier was first elected, he was already unpopular but had a lot of support coming from the rural areas of the provinces while receiving less from urban areas,” he said.
Wright said during the first year and a half after being elected, the government made unpopular decisions which included cuts to healthcare and education..
“Those policies were met with backlash and protests that lasted on and off for many months until the beginning of the pandemic,” he said.
Wright said all of the words in bold can be replaced with said he thinks the biggest embarrassment ever for the premier was to show up at the Raptors championship parade in downtown Toronto on June 17, 2019., when and where? because he was booed by a large number of people in a city that is mostly Liberal and NDP territory. Too many quotes, paraphrase what he said. Use quotes to emphasize his position.
“He gained a lot of support during the beginning of the pandemic, partly because of his desire to protect Ontarians from the virus, but when the second wave began in November 2020, followed by the next two waves and the arrival of Omicron last November, everything just went downhill for him,” Wright said.
He said the reasons include the lack of rapid tests, equitable vaccine supplies for booster shots, a proper plan for how schools should operate while facing COVID-19 outbreaks, and Bill 124 that Ford’s government passed, which froze wages for nurses.
Meanwhile, Ford continues to be at the centre of controversy.
A major blizzard swept through the Greater Toronto Area on Jan. 17, when, a video surfaced of him not wearing a mask and giving people a ride who abandoned their stranded vehicles on the road.
Another incident showed an example of suspected distracted driving when appearing in a video chat interview with a local television news outlet, in apparent defiance of the strict distracted driving laws.
Ford tweeted a campaign-style statement on Jan. 21 where he said his government will continue investing in a greater health care system for the province, while criticizing the previous Liberal government for its health care plan.
“Did you know that before we took office, the Liberal government fired 1,600 nurses? Since then, we’ve hired over 6,700 health care workers, with another 6,000 joining by March,” he stated.
Wright said if Ford wants to get re-elected in June, “he has to make sure his party gets their priorities right by healing the division that had been unleashed across the province, uniting his camp and being for the people.”