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For instance, the survey revealed three quarters of those sampled were open to voting PC — made up of core PC voters (23 per cent), those who could “certainly” consider voting PC (20 per cent) and a third group that said they would “maybe consider” casting a vote for the Conservatives (32 per cent).

Angus Reid calculates a lot of this support is potentially soft. For instance, the poll estimated that half of those who are in the “certainly consider” camp would be less likely to vote PC if Ford were leader.

By comparison, just 11 per cent of those in the “certainly consider” voting PC group would be less likely to vote for the party if Elliott were leader. The poll did not provide a comparable breakdown for Mulroney or the fourth PC leadership contender, Tanya Granic Allen.

In a separate part of the survey, Mulroney was the only one of the four PC leadership candidates to have a net favourable rating among younger people (ages 18 to 34).

Overall, Angus Reid estimated the PCs have the support of 50 per cent of decided and leaning voters compared with 24 per cent for the Liberals, 22 per cent for the New Democratic Party and 4 per cent for independents.

Among those aged 18 to 34, the race is actually fairly tight, with Liberals at 35 per cent support, PCs at 32 per cent and NDP at 28 per cent. However, for all other age categories, the Conservatives command more than 55 per cent support from those surveyed.