About EKOS Politics

We launched this website in order to showcase our election research, and our suite of polling technologies including Probit and IVR. We will be updating this site frequently with new polls, analysis and insight into Canadian politics. EKOS's experience, knowledge and sophisticated research designs have contributed positively to many previous elections.

Other EKOS Products

In addition to current political analysis, EKOS also makes available to the public general research of interest, including research in evaluation, general public domain research, as well as a full history of EKOS press releases.

Media Inquires

For media inquires, please contact: Frank Graves President EKOS Research Associates t: 613.235-7215 [email protected]

The 2022 Ontario Election in Review

[Ottawa – June 27, 2022] We have just wrapped our post-election study in Ontario. The two noteworthy results of the election were; 1) Doug Ford and the Progressive Conservatives winning an increased majority from 2018, and 2) the lowest voter turnout in the history of Ontario, where 43.5% of the eligible voters came to the polls. Our study looks at these issues and has identified some underlying causes for why they happened. [More...]

2022 Ontario Election: A Retrospective

[Ottawa – June 6, 2022] Here at EKOS Research, we are proud to have successfully forecasted the outcome of the Ontario election correctly for the sixth consecutive time. We predicted that Doug Ford and the Progressive Conservatives would win a second majority based on our estimates of voting intention and seat projections. To their credit, they exceeded our estimates and won 83 seats. [More...]

EKOS Predicts PC Majority

[Ottawa – June 1, 2022] As Ontarians go to the polls tomorrow, the governing Progressive Conservatives have a ten-point lead over both the Liberals and the NDP, the final EKOS Research survey of the 2022 provincial election has found. Among decided and leaning voters, the Progressive Conservatives led by Doug Ford have 37.0% support. The Liberals (24.7%) and the New Democrats (23.5%) are statistically tied. The Greens led by Mike Schreiner have 8.7%, while the New Blue Party comes in with 4.4%. [More...]

EKOS Seat Projection

Special thanks go to Earl Washburn who was the principal investigator in creating this seat forecast.

[Ottawa – June 1, 2022] It’s that time again, it’s election day! And as we did in the last Ontario election, we are going to be bold and once again do a seat-by-seat prediction of today’s provincial election in Ontario. After crunching the numbers, it looks clear that the Progressive Conservatives will win a majority government. They have a narrow lead in the popular vote and, thanks to a beneficial vote distribution, will in all likelihood win a large majority of the seats. [More...]

Progressive Conservatives Hold Seven-Point Lead

[Ottawa – May 24, 2022] The Progressive Conservatives maintain a seven-point lead over the Ontario Liberal Party, a new EKOS Research poll has found. Among decided and leading voters, the Progressive Conservatives has 33.7% support (-0.8% from EKOS last published poll on Tuesday), while the Ontario Liberals have 26.9% (+0.3%). The New Democrats find themselves with 23.8% (-2.1%). The Green Party come in with 8% while the New Blue Party have 4.7%. [More...]

Ontario PCs Hold Clear Lead

[Ottawa – May 24, 2022] The governing Progressive Conservatives remain in the lead as the Ontario election heads into its final turn, a new EKOS Research survey has found.

The PCs have 34.5% support among decided voters, while the Liberals command 26.7% support. The New Democratic Party enjoys 24.1% support and the Greens have 6.6%. [More...]

Ontario Race Tightens as Writ Drops

With barely three weeks to go until Ontarians go to the polls, what was looking to be a runaway election has turned into a horserace. A week ago, the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario enjoyed a 14-point lead over the (barely) second-place Liberals and a prospect of a second PC majority seemed to be a sure thing. Fast forward to today, however, and the party’s lead has shrunk to less than five points – a clear lead, but insufficient for a majority. [More...]

Ford Maintains Clear but Modest Lead

[Ottawa – January 18, 2022] Ontario’s Progressive Conservative Party holds a significant eight-point lead over the Ontario Liberals and the Ontario NDP, who find themselves in a dead heat for second place. If this lead continues to Election Day, Ontarians would see Ford restored to power, but a majority would be in doubt. At five points, the Green Party is not a factor at this time, but ‘other’ are capturing eight per cent of the vote. These individuals appear to be disaffected People’s Party voters looking for a home. [More...]

Three-Way Federal Horserace Frozen

[Ottawa – November 27, 2021] Canada is two months out from its most recent federal election and the latest poll results suggest little would change if another one were held tomorrow. The voter landscape shows little movement, which reflects a broadly sour national mood. The polarization and fragmentation that have become an entrenched feature of our political landscape have not gone away and may have gotten worse. No party summons even 31% of voter intention and there appears to be no path to a majority in the near future. This finding comes against a background where the recent election produced historically low levels of public satisfaction. It is linked to a view that while the pandemic may be drawing to a slow conclusion, a return to normalcy and a full economic recovery are years away. [More...]

Public Attitudes to Paid Sick Leave in Ontario

As Ontario struggles to contain the third wave of COVID-19, the issue of paid sick leave has become more topical than ever. Workplaces have been a major source of COVID-19 infections and the lack of paid sick days – particularly among essential workers – has direct implications for containing its spread. The purpose of this survey is to gauge public attitudes toward mandating paid sick leave benefits in Ontario. [More...]

Ontarians Side with Teacher Unions

The leaderless Ontario Liberal Party has now opened up a significant lead over the Doug Ford-led Progressive Conservative Party. The Liberals and the PCs are both up from December, while the Official Opposition NDP has been declining. The Green Party is holding steady at a respectable nine per cent but, as we have seen in the past, much of this does not translate into votes on Election Day. [More...]

Conservative Fortunes Waning as Liberal Fortunes Rise in Nearly Deadlocked Race

The political landscape is now clearly shifting in favour of the Liberals and to the detriment of the Conservatives. The Scheer-led Conservatives have seen their 11-point lead from just a month ago shrink to a narrow 2.7-point lead as of last night. [More...]

Oshawa Plant Closure Lands with a Loud Bang

[Ottawa – December 6, 2018] The closing of the GM assembly plant in Oshawa has aroused near-universal attention. Over 90 per cent of Ontarians say they are following this issue.

Ontarians are naturally worried: 82 per cent registered at least some concern, with 42 per cent expressing a high degree of concern. Not surprisingly, the latter figure jumps to 56 per cent among those most affected by the plant’s closure – residents of Oshawa.

Turning to how the public feel about Premier Ford’s handling of the issue, we find that they are largely underwhelmed. More than half of Ontarians (56 per cent) – including nearly full two-thirds of Oshawa residents – say they disapprove of the Premier’s handling. Negative sentiments are particularly high among union members. Ford supporters are generally satisfied with how he is managing the situation (81 per cent), but satisfaction drops precipitously when we turn Liberals, Greens, and NDP voters (21 per cent, 20 per cent, and 14 per cent, respectively). [More...]

EKOS Accurately Predicts PC Majority Victory

[Ottawa – June 12, 2018] After an exciting campaign, the 42nd Ontario general election has come to a close. We at EKOS believe we did a very good job in charting the direction of what was one of the most unusual election campaigns in recent memory. We first noted on June 1st that, barring significant changes, Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives appeared headed for a majority government. The race remained relatively stable in the final week and we affirmed this prediction on June 6th. Furthermore, we captured the popular support of all four contenders to within the margin of error. [More...]

EKOS Seat Projection

Special thanks go to Earl Washburn who was the principal investigator in creating this seat forecast.
[Ottawa – June 7, 2018] It’s that time again, it’s election day! And as we did in the last federal election, we are going to be bold and once again do a seat by seat prediction of today’s provincial election in Ontario. In our 2011 we got more seats correct than any publicly available projection model or prediction, and we are hoping to replicate that again for this election. However, predicting elections is often a fool’s game and if polling is wildly off, we will be too. [More...]

EKOS Predicts PC Majority

[Ottawa – June 6, 2018] In what has been a wild ride, the electorate are converging on a judgement that will see Doug Ford leading a comfortable majority for the next four years in Queen’s Park.

The campaign has been highly dynamic and the final results bear little resemblance to the results going into the election. The NDP has seen a profound improvement in their fortunes and jumped from 21 points just two months ago to 41 points just around the time of the final debate. Since then, however, they have fallen back and their four-point lead has turned into a four-point deficit. The Liberal Party, meanwhile, is suffering catastrophic losses, although they have staunched the bleeding in the last week of the campaign. [More...]

Without Significant Changes, Doug Ford on Track for Majority Government

[Ottawa – June 1, 2018] As we enter the final week of the campaign, the Ontario NDP have started falling back, while the Ford-led Progressive Conservatives have opened up a clear, four-point lead. The Liberals are stuck at 19 points with no plausible path to victory. [More...]

Race Deadlocked

With just eight days until Election Day, the NDP finds itself locked into a statistical tie with the Progressive Conservatives. While the NDP enjoys a half-point lead over the PCs, the underlying regional patterns suggest that the PCs hold a significant advantage in terms of seat efficiency. Indeed, if these numbers hold, we will almost certainly be looking at some form of PC government on June 7th. The Liberals, meanwhile, have been stuck below 20 points for some time now. [More...]

A Volatile Electorate Producing a Newly-Tied Race

[Ottawa – May 25, 2018] With just 13 days until Ontarians cast their ballots, the NDP has seen a significant shift and now holds a statistically insignificant lead over the PCs in what is becoming a highly volatile race. Meanwhile, at just 20 points, the Liberals are being squeezed out of what has morphed into a two-way race and it appears that their 15-year reign may be drawing to a close. [More...]

PCs Hold Solid Lead, but Momentum Favours NDP

[Ottawa – May 22, 2018] With barely two weeks to go until Ontarians hit the polls, the NDP are picking up momentum with both the Progressive Conservatives and Liberals falling back modestly. If these numbers were to apply to the election, they would almost certainly produce a PC majority. However, the upward momentum for the NDP and the decline of the Liberals bring in the clear possibility of other outcomes. [More...]