A new Ip­sos Reid poll con­ducted for CTV News and CP24 shows the de­sire for change in On­tario’s gov­ern­ment is strength­en­ing and that Tim Hu­dak’s im­age has im­proved.

This is good news for those who be­lieve the McGuinty-Wynne gov­ern­ment has set this province on a path to eco­nomic ruin with a free-spend­ing bud­get and a debt-load that prompted the Lib­er­als’ own for­mer fi­nance min­is­ter, Dwight Dun­can, to warn On­tario’s in­ter­est pay­ments on its debt “are a tick­ing time bomb.”

Dun­can made this as­sess­ment in Jan­u­ary 2013 and guess what? The deficit for the up­com­ing year is pro­jected to be higher than last. That’s two years in a row that the bud­get short­fall has in­creased and the Grits are with­out a be­liev­able fis­cal plan that will see the bud­get bal­anced in the fore­see­able fu­ture.

More: Russ Campbell’s Blog: IPSOS Poll: Hudak’s Prospects Improve