Harper's Conservatives regain lead in new Canadian poll

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Conservatives have regained the lead in a new EKOS poll. This comes after Harper narrowly avoided a summer election that could have been triggered by Michael Ignatieff and the Liberals.

The Canadian Federal Conservatives have regained support after the Liberals threatened a possible summer election. According to a new EKOS poll 34.8 per cent would support Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservatives, 32.6 per cent would vote for the Liberals, while 14.3 per cent of respondents would support the New Democratic Party and 9 per cent for the Green Party and the Bloc Quebecois. The Tories have been losing support for the last few months and this is the first time since last autumn’s election that Harper and the Conservatives have been gaining support however, in Ontario, the Liberals and Conservatives are neck and neck with 38 per cent. Also in the poll, new Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff’s job approval rating dropped to 37%, while Prime Minister Harper’s approval rating increased to 34 per cent. During the fiasco between Michael Ignatieff and Stephen Harper, the Liberal Leader made hard demands in order to support the minority government however, after a meeting between the two officials, Mr. Ignatieff had calmed down and agreed to Prime Minister Harper’s promise of reforming Employment Insurance this fall’s session. Some analysts believe, such EKOS President Frank Graves, that this was the downfall of Mr. Ignatieff’s approval rating. The telephone survey was conducted between June 17th and June 23rd and involved a random sample of Canadians, which has a margin of error of 1.7 per cent. This poll was only released exclusively to CBC News.