Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Libs Up in Ontario Too

Despite the DiNovo by-election cock-up, despite the Caledonia standoff, Dalton McGuinty's provincial Liberal Party holds a "comfortable lead" over all comers in the approach to next year's provincial election, says a new Ekos Poll in today's Star:

The Toronto Star-EKOS Research Associates survey shows the Liberals at 42.4 per cent to the Conservatives' 36.2 per cent with Howard Hampton's New Democrats surging to 19.6 per cent.

The survey of 584 Ontarians was conducted Oct. 10-12 and is considered accurate to within 4.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

Ekos president Frank Graves claims that:

it looks like it's McGuinty's to lose....If the economy stays strong — particularly the labour market — I think they'll be very difficult to dislodge.

One problem for the Tories is that Progressive Conservative leader Tory has yet to register with voters. Graves notes:

He hasn't really managed to grab the podium effectively on an issue that's really going to seize Ontarians.

My advice to McGuinty. Run a clean, front runner's campaign. Keep Kinsella a mile away from it. You saw what happened with DiNovo. Warren the mud monster is bad for the Liberal party.

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