The swirling controversy over how Premier Doug Ford’s government removed protected land from Ontario’s Greenbelt to build housing is weakening voter support for the premier and his Progressive Conservative party, according to a pair of new opinion polls released this week.

Both polls — one conducted by the Angus Reid Institute and the other by Abacus Data — show recent drops in approval for Ford and the Progressive Conservatives. Pollsters for both firms believe the Greenbelt saga is a key factor.

“The Greenbelt has been the issue that has dominated headlines over the last several weeks,” said Shachi Kurl, president of the non-profit Angus Reid Institute.

“It’s hard to decouple that from these findings.”

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    The Abacus Data poll, conducted over a week starting Aug. 29 and released Tuesday, found the PC party with the support of 34 per cent of committed voters, down seven points from the firm’s previous Ontario politics survey in mid-July.

    Despite the apparent drop in voter support for Ford, both polls found neither the opposition Liberals nor NDP have gained enough ground to overtake the PCs.

    After vowing throughout his first term in office that he wouldn’t touch the Greenbelt, Ford reversed course last November and announced the government was lifting environmental protections on land at 15 hand-picked sites to allow the construction of 50,000 homes.

    Last month, Ontario Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk found developers heavily influenced the selection of those sites, and estimated that the government’s move boosted the value of the lands by at least $8.3 billion.

    Wake said it all led to Ford’s cabinet making what he called “an uninformed and opaque decision which resulted in the creation of an opportunity to further the private interests of some developers improperly.”

    Both reports showed that developers, their lawyers or their lobbyists were in contact during September and October of 2022 with the chief of staff to then-minister Steve Clark about their Greenbelt properties, well before the government made any public announcements about its plans.

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