

Codi Wilson, CP24.com





Tom Mulcair and the federal NDP Party still appear to be enjoying a comfortable lead over the Liberals and Conservatives, according to a new poll.

Forum Research says that of the 1308 voters it surveyed after the Labour Day weekend, 36 per cent said they support the NDP while the Liberals and Conservatives tied for second place with 29 per cent support and 28 per cent support respectively.

While the Liberals appear to be the preferred party in Atlantic Canada (53 per cent), the NDP has taken a commanding lead in Quebec (45 per cent). The NDP is also ahead in British Columbia with 37 per cent support while the Conservatives and Liberals trail behind with 28 per cent and 27 per cent respectively. The race for Ontario appears to be a tighter one with the NDP (34 per cent) slightly ahead of the Liberals and Conservatives, which each have 31 per cent support.

In the prairies, with just 27 per cent support, the Liberals are lagging behind both the Conservatives (35 per cent) and the NDP (34 per cent).

Conservatives still have the lead in Alberta with 43 per cent support while the NDP and Liberals struggle to claim second place with 28 per cent support and 25 per cent support respectively.

When asked which party voters believed would win the election, 33 per cent said they thought Mulcair would be victorious while about one quarter expected the Conservatives or the Liberals to come out on top.

Voters also signaled their support for Mulcair as prime minister. Thirty-one per cent said they thought Mulcair would make the best leader for the country versus 25 per cent who said Harper would make the strongest leader. Only 22 per cent said they though Trudeau is the best candidate to be the leader of Canada.

“After a surge of enthusiasm for the two opposition parties last week, and a bad week for the government, it appears voters are reconsidering their options,” Lorne Bozinoff, president of Forum Research, said in a written statement accompanying the poll.

“It may be that underlying opposition to accepting Syrian refugees has led to increased support for the Conservatives. This is a very volatile electorate, as we have seen, and there is more than a normal election’s worth of campaigning left to go, so any number of things could happen.”

This poll, which was conducted on Sept. 9 and 10, is considered accurate plus or minus 3 per cent, 19 times out of 20.