Ontario's Bill 23 very unpopular — including among many PC voters: poll

Over half of Ontario voters strongly disapprove of Bill 23, which opens some Greenbelt lands in south-central Ontario for development, a Mainstreet poll suggests.

That includes a significant number of PC supporters.

About 55 per cent of voters somewhat or strongly disapprove of Doug Ford's PC government more generally, with 41 per cent saying they have a strongly unfavourable view, a number similar to the disapproval of the federal Liberals in a national poll in November.

Half of voters strongly disapprove of the government's handling of health care issues and 45 per cent strongly disapprove of how the government dealt with its labour dispute with education support workers.

However, the PCs still have the support of 37 per cent of decided and leaning voters, while opposition support is split between the NDP at almost 26 per cent and the Liberals at 24 per cent.

Both opposition parties lack long-term leaders, although Davenport MPP Marit Stiles seems on track to be acclaimed NDP leader.

In November, the government passed, then repealed, a bill that used the notwithstanding clause to impose a contract on education support workers. Schools across the province closed for a two-day strike.

Ontario's children's hospitals have been overwhelmed with patients due to high rates of respiratory illness (an issue also seen across Canada and abroad).

As for the Greenbelt, the government has faced questions about reports that developers, many of them donors to the PC party, bought land that was about to be opened for development before the announcement.

Mainstreet CEO Quito Maggi sees the Greenbelt bill and the ethical questions around it as dangerous for the PCs.

"Health care, in the longer term, will hurt the Ontario government, but the one that’s going to hurt in a very short period, in the really near future, is Bill 23."

While PC voters tend to approve of the government in general, 40 per cent strongly or somewhat disapprove of Bill 23 (24.7 per cent strongly disapprove).

"The voting population can put up with incompetence, or the government doing something they don’t agree with," Maggi said. "The exception to that has always been if there’s a perception that someone is unfairly lining their pockets."

"The perception is that the Doug Ford government is unfairly giving a benefit to a very small sliver of their supporters in the development industry, who have lands in these areas that are highly, highly sought after and lucrative."

This Mainstreet Research poll was conducted on Dec. 1 and 2, 2022. A sample of 1,162 people was interviewed by automated telephone interviews. The poll is accurate to within ±2.9 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

Mainstreet Research is a shareholder in the ownership of iPolitics and QP Briefing.