In the run-up to the provincial budget, CUPE Ontario commissioned a public opinion poll to gauge Ontarians’ attitudes toward taxation, funding for public services, health-care privatization, and job creation, as well as specifics about recent decisions of the Ford Conservatives.
“Doug Ford and his Conservatives like to say that they’re ‘for the people’ and that they were re-elected to ‘defend Ontario jobs and Ontario workers,’” said CUPE Ontario President Fred Hahn. “Because they were so thin on details, we went directly to Ontarians to ask for voters’ opinion on what ‘defending’ should look like.”
From May 13 to 14, Abacus Data conducted a survey of 1000 voting-age Ontarians. Of those respondents
- 81% said the Ford government should invest in public services by ensuring funding keeps pace with inflation and population growth;
- 80% prioritized maintaining or increasing funding for public services like health care and education, even if it means increasing corporate taxes;
- 76% believed the provincial government should increase income taxes on individual earnings over $300,000 per year to help ensure adequate funding for essential public services;
- 70% believed the Ontario government has only one sure way to create jobs: by providing tax money to public sector employers and requiring that the money be used to hire more workers to provide public services.
Questioned about private, for-profit delivery of health care, 79% of Ontarians said the Ford Conservatives should stop contracting out our health care to for-profit companies to leave more money available for publicly run health care.
On Bill 5 – the power-grabbing, rights-robbing Protect Ontario by Unleashing our Economy Act 2025 – 80% of respondents said the Ford government should not create special zones in which businesses or selected projects can be exempt from existing laws.
“The results are clear: Ontarians expect investment in our public services as a way of defending Ontario. They expect a budget that will reflect their priorities,” said Hahn.