Three-quarters of Ontarians think Doug Ford on `wrong track,´ poll suggests
(The Star Travel)

Three out of four Ontarians think Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives are on the “wrong track� due in part to unpopular budget cuts to public health, a new poll suggests.The Environics Research survey found 75 per cent of respondents believe the PC government is on the wrong track with 24 per cent saying the Tories are on the right track and 2 per cent unsure.“It took a few years for the Wynne government to get that high on the wrong track number and even that was at the end of 15 years in government,� Environics vice-president Derek Leebosh said Monday.That was a reference to the previous Liberal administration of former premier Kathleen Wynne, which was defeated by Ford’s Tories in last June’s election.Using interactive voice response telephone calls, Environics polled 1,332 Ontarians between last Tuesday and Thursday. Results are considered accurate to within 2.7 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.The poll was commissioned by the Canadian Union of Public Employees and CUPE Local 79.Read more:List of municipalities against public health cuts grows across provinceTory tells Ford city will look for savings, if province cancels this year’s budget cutsOpinion | Martin Regg Cohn: Doug Ford’s post-budget plan to declare bankruptcyIts findings echo those in recent surveys by Pollara Strategic Insights and Corbett Communications, which found budget cuts have not been well-received.Environics asked the right-track/wrong-track question first in the poll.Even among respondents who voted Conservative in the last election, 37 per cent said the Ford government is on the wrong track with 61 per cent saying they are on the right track and 2 per cent unsure.The poll found the Tories’ decision to streamline Ontario’s 35 public-health units to 10 and cut $200 million in spending remains controversial.Some 80 per cent of those surveyed said the units are “very important� to Ontario with an ...