Ontario voters head to polls Thursday

TRENTON, Canada

Voters head to the ballot box Thursday in Canada's most populated province - Ontario - but many have already been there via advanced polls.

Turnout in the 10 days of advanced polls leading up to the election was heavy with just over one million of Ontario's 10.6 million eligible voters casting early ballots, Elections Ontario reported Monday. That is up from 700,000 in the last election in 2018.

The three main parties vying for the vote are the Progressive Conservatives, New Democratic Party (NDP), and the Liberal Party.

The latest polls conducted by various companies near the end of the 28-day campaign indicated Premier Doug Ford and the Progressive Conservative Party (PCP) will earn a second term in office with a majority victory as in 2018.

A Nanos Research poll conducted between Sunday and Tuesday indicated 38.98 percent support Ford and the PCP, the Liberal 26.3 percent and the NDP at 24.7 percent. The poll was commissioned by CTV News and CP24 News.

Polls also reported there are five main issues in the election, including health-care, housing, education, affordability of living and climate change.

The number one issue, perhaps not surprising considering the coronavirus pandemic, was health care, named by 27 percent of the 500 respondents in the poll.

"For the launch of the 2022 Ontario provincial election, healthcare registered as the top unprompted issue of concern for Ontarians,” said Nick Nanos, chief data scientist of Nanos Research.

Housing was cited by 11 percent, as housing prices have skyrocketed in Canada and many are worried they will never be able to afford a place of their own. The average price of a house in April 2022 was up 14 percent in a year, to $985,354.

The other issues were in single digit.

The polls opened at 9 a.m. and close at 9 p.m.