Canada Conservatives trail Liberals in poll

Canada Conservatives trail Liberals in poll

OTTAWA, April 16 (Xinhua) -- Public support for Canada's rulingConservatives keep sliding to the advantage of the oppositionLiberals, with the gap between widening to more than six percentagepoints, according to a new poll released on Thursday.

The Conservatives only got the support of 30.2 percent while theLiberals got 36.7 percent in a recent survey by EKOS, providedexclusively to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).

About 15.5 percent supported the NDP, while the Green party wasthe choice of 8.1 percent and the Bloc Quebecois was backed by 9.4percent.

The survey was conducted using a hybrid Internet-telephoneresearch panel between April 8 and 13, and involved a random sampleof 1,587 Canadians. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5percent, 19 times out of 20.

A similar poll by EKOS at the end of last year put theConservatives at 44 percent, compared with 24 percent for theLiberals.

A poll by Strategic Council earlier this month put the Liberalsat 34 percent, compared with 32 percent for the Conservatives.

EKOS pollster Frank Graves said the latest numbers, accompaniedby regional breakdowns showing the Conservatives' level of supportwell below that of the Liberals in the key battleground provinces ofOntario and Quebec, suggest that "even the question of repeating aminority is an iffy proposition" for Prime Minister Stephen Harper'sparty.