Ontario Premier Doug Ford has openly rejected a new public opinion poll that ranked him at the bottom of approval ratings for provincial premiers across the country. Asked about the Angus Reid survey during a visit to Thunder Bay, Ford brushed aside the findings, which showed him sitting last among Canada's premiers after a notable slide in his standing, and instead turned his fire on the pollster itself.
Ford questioned how the numbers had been gathered, suggesting the survey had been skewed against him. He claimed the firm had effectively polled New Democrat and Liberal voters, saying it had gone into what he described as hardcore NDP territory rather than asking people more broadly across the province. He accused the company of playing little games with its data and complained that the media then run with the results, framing the entire exercise as a fake poll designed to make him look bad.
The polling firm has a long record of measuring Ford's popularity, having tracked his standing throughout his eight years in office. Over that time it has registered both highs and lows, with the premier at his most popular around the beginning of the pandemic, followed by a series of swings, another high shortly after the last election, and then a mostly downward trend in the period since. The current reading, placing him last among premiers, fits the more recent slide rather than standing as an isolated result.
In response to the premier's criticism, the company pushed back in a statement of its own. It noted that leaders with comparatively low approval ratings tend to express unhappiness with the data, and pointed out that Ford had at times been among the most approved provincial leaders in the country based on the very same quarterly survey. It added pointedly that he had not raised any problem with Angus Reid polling during those earlier, more favourable stretches.
The dispute quickly drew in Ford's political opponents. The province's interim Liberal leader called some of the premier's comments outlandish, saying they sounded like Donald Trump and his cries of fake news. The Liberal leader tied the apparent slide in public opinion to the Ford government's purchase of a private jet, a deal that was quickly reversed following public outcry, summing it up with the line that the luxury private jet had crashed and, along with it, the premier's popularity.
The reaction from the New Democrats was more measured but no less pointed. The NDP leader said the figure showing Ford down came as no surprise, suggesting it lined up with how the party sees public sentiment toward the government. The exchange unfolded against a backdrop of volatile polling more generally, with some recent numbers showing Ford in a statistical tie with the Liberals in April before he appeared to rebound the following month.
For all the back-and-forth, the polling company made clear it was not backing away from its findings, saying it stands by its research and its methodology. The result is a public standoff between a premier who insists the survey does not reflect reality and a firm that maintains its numbers are sound, leaving the question of Ford's true standing to play out in the polls still to come and, eventually, at the ballot box.