Torontonians say Ford won first provincial leaders’ debate

The majority of Torontonians have crowned Doug Ford the winner of the first provincial leaders’ debate, according to a poll conducted immediately after the event on Monday night.

Mainstreet Research, which randomly surveyed 2,000 adults from Toronto, North York, Etobicoke, and Scarborough, found that about 41.5 per cent of survey respondents said they watched the debate and of those who watched the debate, 35.1 per cent said they thought PC Leader Doug Ford won, while 24.3 per cent said they believed Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath won.

About 19.3 per cent said Premier Kathleen Wynne fared best among all candidates, while 9.5 per cent said no one won. About 11.8 per cent of respondents who watched the debate were not sure who won.

“Doug Ford walked into last night’s debate as the front-runner and clearly Torontonians think that his debate performance matched his support in this poll,” Quito Maggi, president and CEO of Mainstreet Research, said in his written analysis accompanying the poll.

“Debate viewers’ perceptions of Andrea Horwath’s performance is more positive than their thoughts on Wynne’s performance. This is bad news for Wynne, as an important subtext in this election is the battle between Wynne and Horwath for the progressive voter in Ontario.”

When respondents were asked what party they planned to vote for in next month’s election, 36.6 per cent of decided and leaning voters said they would vote for the PCs, while 31.1 per cent said they would cast their ballot for the Liberals. The NDP received about 23 per cent support from survey respondents.

“The NDP are ahead of the Liberals in the downtown core while the Liberals trail the PCs badly in the suburbs,” Maggi said. “This points to a potential situation where the Liberals end up with a handful of seats in Toronto despite having a strong showing in the popular vote.”

The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.19 per cent, 19 times out of 20.