Support for the opposition Liberals remains tied with that for the governing Conservatives for the second week in a row, despite Prime Minister Stephen Harper's handling of the Haiti crisis, a new Ekos poll shows.
"There is no evidence that the government's actions on Haiti are providing any relief in the Conservatives' decline from clear dominance of the political landscape in October to basic parity with the Liberals today," EKOS President Frank Graves said in a release.
"Certainly, it would be a mistake to assume that extensive coverage of the Olympics in coming weeks will bring the government relief simply by distracting voters," Graves added.
The poll, fielded between January 20th and 26th, found voter intention as follows:
Liberal: 31.6%
Conservative: 31.1%
New Democrat: 14.6%
Green: 11.0%
Bloc Quebecois: 9.1%
Other: 2.6%
"We have seen public opinion reverse itself a couple of times in the last year, so it would be a mistake to say that any trend is irreversible," Graves said.
"However, the fact that prorogation backfired on the government, and that its response to Haiti has been well-received but has not translated into support for the Conservative party, suggests there may be some sturdiness to these trends," he added.
The Conservatives continue to lead among a smaller sample of 323 British Columbia voters:
Conservative: 32.4%
Liberal: 27.1%
New Democrat: 21.9%
Green: 14.6%
Other: 4%
The nationwide poll surveyed 3,206 Canadian adults. The margin of error associated with the total sample is +/-1.7 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. The margin of error for the B.C. sample is +/- 5.5 per cent.
Monte Paulsen reports for The Tyee.ca
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