Ontario Premier Doug Ford is lashing out at a non-profit pollster after the organization recorded a steady drop in his support, culminating in his worst level of support since taking office in 2018.
The results show that between March and June, Ford experienced a 10-point drop, leaving him with just 21 per cent approval from voters in Ontario.
The Angus Reid Institute said the number represents “the worst assessment during his tenure as premier” and is largely due to both “economic pressure and self-inflicted wounds.”
Asked about the poll on Tuesday, Ford claimed it was “fake,” suggesting it had been based on the views of opposition politicians.
“They put this fake poll out. They poll the NDP and Liberal caucus,” he said at an unrelated event in Thunder Bay.
“Our polling, along with other polling show, since you brought it up, I don’t like boasting and bragging, if an election was held today, we’re at 41 per cent, we’d win a massive majority once again.”
The institute issued a statement shortly after defending its work.
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“The Angus Reid Institute has measured provincial premier performance approval for more than a decade,” the group wrote in a statement. “We have done this on a quarterly basis without fear or favour.”
Angus Reid’s poll tracker has had Ford as high as 69 per cent in early 2020, when he was the second most popular premier in the country.
The premier’s popularity fell sharply from there to a low of 30 per cent in January 2022, before spiking ahead of the election that year.
It then bottomed out at 28 per cent in September 2023 when Ford was forced to reverse his Greenbelt landswap and apologize.
As the threat of tariffs from the United States hit in early 2025 and Ford hopped into an Ottawa power vacuum to present himself as “Captain Canada,” his popularity rose again.
In March 2025, Angus Reid had Ford at 48 per cent.
But since early 2026, Ford’s Progressive Conservatives have been experiencing a steady decline in public support as the party entered its eighth year in office.
Public opinion polls, on average, show the PC with 40 per cent support — enough to win another majority government, but with tighter margins.
Polls have also shown the leaderless Liberals catching up to and, at times, beating the PC Party as voters started considering alternatives to the government party.
The slump in numbers was compounded by the government’s decision to exempt the premier and cabinet ministers from freedom of information laws, Ford’s legal battle to keep his personal cellphone records private and his decision to buy a $28.9 million Challenger 650 jet to accommodate his travel.
On Tuesday, the premier said the poll that had him as Canada’s least popular premier was simply wrong.
“I’ll tell you the reason we’d win another massive majority: because we’re creating jobs, we aren’t raising taxes, we’re putting money into people’s pockets,” he said.
The premier went on to claim the firm’s polling methodology involved going into a “hardcore NDP neighbourhood” to ask its questions.
“It’s little games, and then you guys run with it,” he said.
Angus Reid added that Ford “did not express a problem” with its polling when it showed positive results for him.
“We stand by our research and methodology,” the group wrote.
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