Poll: Most voters aware of PC convention, but aren't swayed by central promise of the People's Guarantee

Most Ontario voters say they were aware of the Ontario's Progressive Conservative's policy convention, but the leader's key promise — not to seek a second term if he fails to meet his five major campaign commitments — hasn't swayed many votes to the party, a Forum Research poll has found.

Forum polled 861 randomly selected Ontario Voters on November 29 and 30, and asked how aware they were of the Ontario Progressive Conservative policy convention held the weekend prior.

Just over half — 54 per cent – said they were aware, with 17 per cent saying they were "very aware" and 37 per cent saying they were "somewhat aware."

About a quarter — 26 per cent — said they were not very aware, while 16 per cent said they were not at all aware, and four per cent said they did not know.

At that convention, PC Leader Patrick Brown released the party's election platform, dubbed the People's Guarantee. The guarantee is that Brown is promising he won't seek a second term as premier if a PC government doesn't meet five specific promises.

Forum asked if making that guarantee made respondents more likely or less likely — or neither —to vote for the Progressive Conservatives in the next provincial election.

The poll did not spell out what the five promises are.

The plurality of respondents — 44 per cent — said they were neither more nor less likely to vote PC because of the guarantee.

About one-in-five, 19 per cent, said they are at least somewhat more likely, with 12 per cent said much more likely, while 26 per cent say they are at least somewhat less likely, with 17 per cent said they were much less likely.

Voters who identified as Progressive Conservative supporters, however, were much more likely than supporters of the other parties to say the guarantee made them more likely to vote for the PCs — with 34 per cent of them saying so, compared to 11 per cent of Liberal supporters, 9 per cent of NDP supporters, 13 per cent of Green supporters and 10 per cent of those who support other parties.