One Half of Ontario Voters Aware of Fundraising Controversy

    

One Half of Ontario Voters Aware of Fundraising Controversy

Most think Liberals worst offenders, one third say reform “very urgent”

In a random sampling of public opinion taken by the Forum Poll™ among 1183 Ontario voters, one half are aware of the controversy surrounding political fundraising in the province (49%), and these tend to be the mid aged (45 to 54 - 55%), males (57% rather than females (42%), the wealthiest ($100K to $250K - 59%), in the 905 area code surrounding Toronto (54%), among PC voters (59%) and among the best educated (post grad - 65%).

Most think Liberals bend the rules more than others

When asked who bends the fundraising rules the most, in total, more than one quarter of voters say the Liberals do (28%), and very few specify either the PCs (8%) or the NDP (2%) or, in fact, all the parties (8%). Among PC voters, close to half in total say the Liberals are the guilty party (47%), while Liberal voters are equally likely to blame their own party (9%) or the PCs (13%). NDP voters think both Liberals (23%) and PCs (15%) are guilty of bending the rules.

One third says fundraising reform “very” urgent

In total, 6-in-10 voters think political fundraising reform in Ontario is urgent (60%) and as many as one third say it is “very urgent” (33%). Belief in extreme urgency of reform is common to males (42%), the very wealthiest (37%), in Southwestern Ontario (36%), among PC voters (44%) and even among one quarter of Liberals (23%) and New Democrats (27%).

“While the political slush fund capers haven’t penetrated that far into the popular consciousness, they’ve made an impression on the older, wealthy and well-educated voters, which would indicate they have the capacity to become a more serious issue for this government" said Forum Research President, Dr. Lorne Bozinoff.

Lorne Bozinoff, Ph.D. is the president and founder of Forum Research. He can be reached at lbozinoff@forumresearch.com or at (416) 960-9603.