Archived pre-election evidence / Third-party polling

Dissatisfaction did not translate directly into the ballot.

Pallas’s February surveys paired a sizeable PC advantage with a markedly negative assessment of Ontario’s direction.

Analysis by Northbound InsightsPublished 25 Oct 20262025 Ontario provincial election
Original source report20 Feb 2025Pallas Data
Interviews conducted18 Feb 2025Total sample n=953
Election / referendum day27 Feb 2025Source dated 7 days before the vote
The research was conducted by Pallas Data. Northbound’s analysis was first published 25 Oct 2026, after this vote. The original source dates are not Northbound publication dates.
01 / The ballot picture

The number needs
a denominator.

Question concept

Provincial voting intention among decided and leaning respondents.

Ontario voting intention

Decided and leaning voters

Progressive Conservative44%
Ontario Liberal28%
Ontario NDP20%
Green5%

Only itemized parties are shown. Their shares total 97%; the remainder is not inferred.

Research: Pallas Data · 20 Feb 2025 ↗Fieldwork: 18 Feb 2025 · total n=953
Our reading

A negative assessment of the province is not automatically a vote for one particular opposition party.

02 / Across the evidence

More than one view.

The overall pattern was similar across two waves

Reported percentages · common 0–100 scale

Pallas Data · 20 Feb 2025Pallas Data · 5 Feb 2025

PC

Pallas Data · 20 Feb 2025
44%
Pallas Data · 5 Feb 2025
45%

Liberal

Pallas Data · 20 Feb 2025
28%
Pallas Data · 5 Feb 2025
28%

NDP

Pallas Data · 20 Feb 2025
20%
Pallas Data · 5 Feb 2025
21%

Green

Pallas Data · 20 Feb 2025
5%
Pallas Data · 5 Feb 2025
5%

February 18 fieldwork versus February 1–2. One-point differences are displayed without implying a statistically established change.

Original reports: Pallas Data · 20 Feb 2025 ↗   /   Pallas Data · 5 Feb 2025 ↗

Views of Ontario’s direction

All respondents

Wrong direction57%
Right direction23%
Unsure20%

This is a different question and denominator from the decided-and-leaning ballot.

Research: Pallas Data · 20 Feb 2025 ↗Fieldwork: 18 Feb 2025 · total n=953
03 / The fuller story

Two measures, two different questions

The February 20 release showed a 16-point PC advantage while 57% described the province’s direction negatively. Those are compatible findings. One question concerns the state of Ontario; the other asks respondents to choose among electoral alternatives. Conflating them would turn dissatisfaction into a vote forecast without evidence.

Opposition totals are not transferable votes

The Liberals and NDP had distinct reported shares. Adding them together may describe an arithmetic total, but it does not establish how respondents would behave if a candidate withdrew or a ballot changed. Such a counterfactual needs its own research question or model.

The comparison suggests continuity, not a complete campaign history

The displayed February 5 and February 20 releases showed similar party ordering and shares. Two waves are not proof that nothing happened between them, and a one-point difference is not presented as a verified trend. The source dates and sampling limitations remain part of the interpretation.

The seat question remains separate

A province-wide margin cannot settle which party becomes the Official Opposition. Geographic concentration, local contests and turnout also matter. This report presents the evidence without inventing riding estimates, constituency samples or a retrospective seat model.

04 / Methodology & limits

The record behind
the report.

Source-reported methods are transcribed below. Items absent from the reviewed summaries are identified so readers can distinguish documented details from information that remains unavailable.

Pallas Data · 20 Feb 2025 · n=953
Research provider
Pallas Data
Source report date
20 Feb 2025
Fieldwork
18 Feb 2025
Population
Ontario adults aged 18+ eligible to vote provincially
Total interviews
953
Published ballot base
Decided and leaning voters; exact unweighted ballot base not provided in the summary
Interview method
Automated telephone interviews (IVR), landline and cellphone
Weighting
Age, gender and region; 2021 Census
Source uncertainty statement
Publisher reports ±3.2 pp at 95% for the full sample; larger for subgroups.
Commissioning / funding
Not identified in the reviewed summary; see original release.
Question wording and order
Consult the linked original release and its supporting tables. Our question descriptions are summaries, not verbatim questionnaires.
Design effect / effective n
Not supplied in the reviewed summary. An effective sample size and bespoke significance test are not calculated here.

Pallas Data · 20 Feb 2025 ↗

Pallas Data · 5 Feb 2025 · n=1,014
Research provider
Pallas Data
Source report date
5 Feb 2025
Fieldwork
1 Feb 2025 – 2 Feb 2025
Population
Ontario adults aged 18+ eligible to vote provincially
Total interviews
1,014
Published ballot base
Decided and leaning voters; exact unweighted ballot base not provided in the summary
Interview method
Automated telephone interviews (IVR), landline and cellphone
Weighting
Age, gender and region; 2021 Census
Source uncertainty statement
Publisher reports ±3.1 pp at 95% for the full sample; higher for subgroups.
Commissioning / funding
Not identified in the reviewed summary; see original release.
Question wording and order
Consult the linked original release and its supporting tables. Our question descriptions are summaries, not verbatim questionnaires.
Design effect / effective n
Not supplied in the reviewed summary. An effective sample size and bespoke significance test are not calculated here.

Pallas Data · 5 Feb 2025 ↗

Source and interpretation check

The earlier Pallas page has an apparent “2005” typo in its methodology paragraph, while its release date and introductory fieldwork description identify February 2025. We retain February 1–2, 2025 from those consistent statements and flag the discrepancy rather than silently reproducing the typo.

Rounded percentages may not sum to 100. Missing categories are not inferred. Point-estimate gaps and arithmetic differences are not significance tests. No respondent-level records, complete weighting files or independent design-effect estimates were available for this analysis.

05 / Sources & data

Inspect the evidence.

  1. Pallas Data · 20 Feb 2025 ↗Original poll · source date 20 Feb 2025 · fieldwork 18 Feb 2025
  2. Pallas Data · 5 Feb 2025 ↗Comparison poll · source date 5 Feb 2025 · fieldwork 1 Feb 2025 – 2 Feb 2025
  3. Official election / referendum information ↗Voting day and jurisdiction
Download plotted data ↓

This selected archive reproduces reported numerical findings with attribution and adds Northbound’s interpretation. It is not an original Northbound poll, a complete polling average or a claim that Northbound published before the historical vote. No election outcome was used to generate a survey figure. Publication policy.

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