Canadian Liberals gaining support, Conservatives eroding in polls

Three new polls show that support for Canada's Liberals is growing drastically, while the Conservatives are losing support among the Canadian public over the prorogation situation in Ottawa.

A recent poll by Angus Reid-Toronto Star suggests that the Liberals are gaining support as the current Conservative government prorogues parliament, which has upset Canadians across the country, according to the Toronto Star. The poll indicates that the ruling Conservatives hold a 33 per cent among decided voters, while the Liberals have 29 per cent support. The New Democratic Party has 19 per cent support, the Bloc Quebecois is at 10 per cent and the Green Party has 7 per cent. Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff told reporters at a news conference outside of the House of Commons, “We're not out of the woods yet. We're still in big trouble. We're in a jobless recovery, but the Conservatives have no plan for creating long-term, high-quality jobs.” However, an Ekos poll released on Thursday shows the Liberals have pulled ahead of the Conservatives by a small fraction, according to Reuters. The poll suggests the Liberals maintain 31.6 per cent, which is up 30.9 per cent from one week ago, while the Tories have 31.1 per cent and the NDP holds 14.6 per cent President of Ekos, Frank Graves, explained that the aid to Haiti has not gained political support for Harper's government, despite the majority of Canadians like the government's response to Haiti, “Despite considerable initial confusion over whether the government's problems were ephemeral or structural the evidence is that there has been a significant shift. The number is eye-popping because we did one in October that had the Conservatives at 177 (seats) ... it's like free fall.” Reuters notes that the last time the Liberals were ahead in an Ekos survey was in July of 2009 when they were at 34.2 per cent compared to the Conservatives’ 32.5 per cent. Another poll by the Canadian Press-Harris Decima indicated the same statistics as the Tories have 32 per cent of the vote and the Liberals hold 31 per cent. The Angus Reid online survey was conducted among 1,005 adult respondents between Jan. 25 and Jan. 26 and contains a margin of error of +/- 3.1 percentage points. The Ekos telephone poll was conducted with 2,823 adult respondents between Jan. 20 and Jan. 26 and contains a margin of error of +/- 1.8 percentage points.