If the Ontario election was today, a new poll suggests the New Democrats would win a majority and Andrea Horwath would be the new premier.
With just under two weeks left in the campaign, a new poll by Forum Research says 47% of Ontario residents who took part in a telephone poll on May 23 say they plan to vote for the NDP candidate in their riding.
Another 33% say they would vote for the Progressive Conservatives under Doug Ford, while just 14% say they support the Liberals.
The poll of 906 voters is considered accurate +/- 3%, 19 times out of 20. A total of 906 people responded to the poll.
The Forum poll goes on to say that support breaks down into 79 seats for the NDP in the Ontario legislature. The Progressive Conservatives would form the official opposition with 40 seats, and the Liberals would not get enough seats to have official party status. The party would win just five ridings.
On a local level, Windsor West NDP candidate Lisa Gretzky says the poll numbers are encouraging, but she tells BlackburnNews.com that they can't afford to rest on their laurels.
"We keep plugging away at it, we keep doing the hard work that we're doing," says Gretzky. "We keep getting out there and sharing our plan about change for the better. The ultimately poll will be on E-Day [election day]."
The next two weeks will show if support for the New Democrats has solidified, but Forum says 77% of those polled say they are unlikely to change their support, and 59% say they are very unlikely.
Progressive Conservatives supporters were the most likely to say they will not change allegiance before election day. Nine out of ten said they will not change their plans to vote PC.
As for who would make the best premier, 33% said Andrea Horwath, 30% said Doug Ford and 15% said Kathleen Wynne. Another 13% said none of the party leaders and 9% were not sure.
-With files from Mark Brown