Hudak, Horwath Have a Popularity Problem

Most voters don't know who Andrea Horwath is, while they really don't seem too keen on either Dalton McGuinty or Tim Hudak.

Polls! We know you love them. So, with just one day to go before the writ is dropped on the Ontario election, a new (and actually kind of interesting) one from Nanos Research finds that voters have yet to come to any solid opinions on either PC Leader Tim Hudak or NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, while their views of Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty aren't exactly positive. When asked to use one word to describe the leaders, 43 per cent of respondents couldn't think of one for Hudak, while 55 per cent couldn't do so for Horwath. And when they could come up with a word, the most common words for Hudak were “untrustworthy/corrupt” and “charismatic/good” at 11 per cent, followed by “incompetent/awful” at 10 per cent, “absent” at six per cent, and “trustworthy” at five per cent. Horwath fared a little better, with 15 per cent calling her “charismatic/good” and seven per cent calling her “trustworthy,” while “incompetent awful,” “OK/Alright,” and “socialist” (of course) nabbed six, five, and three per cent, respectively. As for McGuinty, the most common answer was “charismatic/good” at 19 per cent, but the combined response for “incompetent/awful” and “untrustworthy corrupt” garnered 32 per cent.