EDITOR’S NOTE: This article originally appeared on The Trillium, a Village Media website devoted to covering provincial politics at Queen’s Park.
Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford was the winner of the Ontario leaders' debate that aired on the province's major networks Monday evening, according to a new poll.
Pallas Data found that, among Ontarians who said they watched the entire debate, 37 per cent said Ford was the winner, compared to 22 per cent for Ontario Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie, 16 per cent for NDP Marit Stiles and seven per cent for Green Leader Mike Schreiner. The leftover 18 per cent either said no one won or they weren't sure who did.
However, among Ontarians who said they only saw clips of the debate online, Crombie had a slight within-the-margin-of-error edge over Ford, with 30 per cent saying she won, compared to 29 per cent for Ford.
Overall, 26 per cent of poll respondents said they watched the whole debate — a number pollster Joseph Anglano warned is probably inflated.
“This question is prone to social desirability bias — people think they should be watching this,” said the CEO of Pallas data. “It means it’s something people think they should be doing in a healthy democracy, and that it’s part of their civic duty.”
Another 32.4 per cent said they've seen clips of the debate on TV or online, while 41 per cent said they didn't watch any part of it. Older Ontarians were more likely to have said they tuned in.
About half of Ontarians — 52 per cent — said they believe that leaders' debates are "valuable in helping voters decide who they want to vote for," whether or not they watched all, some or none of the debate personally. Just 23 per cent disagreed with that statement.
The poll was conducted by Pallas Data on behalf of The Trillium on Feb. 18, 2025, among a sample of 953 adults, 18 years of age or older, living in Ontario and eligible to vote in provincial elections.
The poll comes as media coverage of election campaigns has changed.
No party has a bus for journalists to accompany the leaders as they tour the province for the first time in a modern Ontario election campaign. The practice used to be a staple of major parties' campaigns. In 2018, only the Liberals and NDP had a bus for media. In 2022, it was only the NDP.
During the 2022 election, campaigns began offering livestreams and sometimes call-in options for media from their stops across the province. While Village Media has had reporters at almost every media availability by the three major party leaders, that is not common among media outlets.
Overall, most Ontarians said they're informed on Ontario political news — 60 per cent said so, compared to 32 per cent who said they were not as well-informed as they could be and another four per cent who said they do not follow political news. Male and older respondents were more likely to say they are well-informed.
The most common reason for not being informed, given by the 36 per cent of respondents who said they weren't informed, was that they "find Ontario political news too depressing," at 33 per cent, compared to 23 per cent of those respondents who said they "don't have time" for the news.
Overall, the plurality of respondents said they prefer to get their news from online news websites — 31 per cent, compared to 23 per cent for television, 13 per cent for print newspapers, eight per cent for radio, and the remainder for social media sites. That changed with age, with television strongly preferred by respondents aged 65-plus.
The poll also found the Progressive Conservatives maintaining their lead with 44 per cent of the vote, compared to 28 per cent for the Liberals, 20 per cent for the New Democrats and 5 per cent for the Greens.
