'People are grumpy, they opted for a pragmatic alternative': Pollster on Ford's win, impact on federal parties

The impact of Ontario’s election night result that led to a decisive victory for the Progressive Conservatives will no doubt reverberate beyond provincial politics into the backrooms of federal party headquarters, says pollster Nik Nanos.

Nanos, of Nanos Research, said the federal Liberal Party will be worryingly evaluating its provincial counterparts’ dismal performance and what that means for federal support in Ontario.

“If you're a federal Liberal organizer, you got to be looking at this and thinking, you know, the brand is on its back heels in Ontario. The party doesn't even have party status. People are grumpy and they opted for a pragmatic alternative,” he said on the latest Trend Line episode.

The Ontario Liberal Party earned only 23.6 per cent of votes and eight seats, and leader Steven Del Duca lost in his hometown riding. He later announced he’d be stepping down.

Nanos said the Ontario election outcome wasn’t settling for Jagmeet Singh and the federal NDP, either.

“Jagmeet Singh, on a personal basis, his brother lost one of those Brampton seats…that's not just a setback for the party in Ontario, but that's also a setback for Jagmeet Singh on a on a personal basis because it's his brother,” he said.

The Ontario NDP held onto 23.7 per cent of the votes and 31 seats, but lost their leader Andrea Horwath, who also announced she’d be stepping aside.

And while it was a good night for Conservatives, voter turnout hit an all-time low, with just about 43.5 per cent of eligible voters casting a ballot, according to preliminary Elections Ontario results.

“I think what happened in this particular election is that for the Liberals and the New Democrats, they ran uninspiring campaigns and people were just not motivated to come out and vote,” Nanos said.

There are takeaways, he says, for the party’s federal leadership contenders.

“Most voters are not ideological, they want pragmatic decisions and decision-making from their elected officials. That's what I think Ontarians believe that they're getting with Doug Ford,” he said.

“Maybe this is a little bit of a wakeup call that if you want to have traction to win in Ontario, look at what Doug Ford is doing.”

With a file from CTV News Toronto's Katherine DeClerq.

Nanos Research: Ontario Election Ballot Tracking