OTTAWA—Kevin O’Leary is the far-and-away front-runner for the Conservative leadership as the Opposition party gains slightly on the Liberals in overall voter preference, according to a new poll.

O’Leary, the celebrity businessman who entered the Tory leadership race last week after months of signalling a potential campaign, is the top choice to lead the party for 27 per cent of poll respondents. The survey found he had more than twice the support of runner-up Maxime Bernier, the Quebec MP and former minister who scored 11 per cent.

Bernier was followed by Lisa Raitt at 7 per cent — she attacked O’Leary in early January by launching the site StopKevinOLeary.com — and Michael Chong, who got 6 per cent.

“(O’Leary)’s adding a bit of lustre to the Conservative race,” said Lorne Bozinoff, president of Forum Research, which conducted the leadership poll.

“The Liberals have sort of had a free rein, a leaderless competition with the other parties. There’s now a leadership candidate among the Tories that people actually know about,” he said. “I think the publicity is going to help the Tories in terms of their numbers.”

At the same time, 38 per cent of respondents still preferred “someone else” to any of the current Conservative leadership candidates, the poll found. That’s down from 53 per cent who wanted someone else when asked in December.

Bozinoff pointed out that, when looking only at Conservative supporters in the poll, O’Leary’s support was more than 50 per cent, while just 21 per cent opted for “someone else.”

O’Leary also placed first in support from Conservative party members, with 31 per cent. That was more than double the support for Lisa Raitt — 14 per cent — who placed second among members that were polled.

“He’s got a lot of support among the rank and file,” Bozinoff said of O’Leary.

The poll Forum released Monday also showed the Liberal government’s lead in voter preference shrinking as the Conservatives gained support. If an election were held today, 42 per cent of respondents said they would vote Liberal, while 36 per cent would vote Conservative, up from 34 per cent in early December, the poll found.

The Liberals’ support would translate to a majority government if an election were held today, according to Forum.

Support for the New Democratic Party, meanwhile, stayed steady at 12 per cent. The Green Party had 5 per cent and the Bloc Québécois had 4 per cent.

Almost half of the poll’s respondents said they approve of Justin Trudeau’s performance as prime minister — down to 48 per cent from 51 per cent in December — while 42 per cent disapproved.

Conservative interim leader Rona Ambrose scored 33-per-cent approval, while NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair received 31 per cent approval, 3 per cent lower than those who disapproved (34 per cent).

The poll was conducted by Forum Research as an interactive phone survey of 1,332 random Canadian voters from Jan. 19 to 21. The poll is considered accurate plus or minus three percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

Where appropriate, results of the survey have been statistically weighted by age, region and other variables to ensure the sample reflects the actual population according to the latest census data.

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Forum houses its complete results in the data library of the University of Toronto’s political science department.

Correction – January 24, 2016: This article was edited from a previous version that misstated the support for the Bloc Québécois as 6 per cent.

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