Conservative leadership candidate Kevin O’Leary continues to be Conservative party members’ first choice for the job, followed by Maxime Bernier and Andrew Scheer, according to the latest iPolitics CPC Leadership Tracker powered by Mainstreet Research.

Candidates Erin O’Toole and Kellie Leitch, meanwhile, are nearly tied.

From April 1 to 6, Mainstreet reached 1,864 members and found — with a margin of error of +/- 2.25 per cent, 19 times out of 20 — that O’Leary was still the first choice of 22.14 per cent of Conservative members.

Bernier is trailing behind O’Leary at 16.84 per cent, followed by Scheer at 13.73 per cent.

The poll shows that 9.28 per cent of Conservative members would choose Leitch as their first choice and 9.22 per cent would choose O’Toole.

Mainstreet Research president Quito Maggi said O’Leary’s lead appears to be widening because he’s picked up support in the Atlantic provinces, Alberta and Ontario.

Maggi said the top seven candidates — O’Leary, Bernier, Scheer, Leitch, O’Toole, Lisa Raitt and Michael Chong — continue to gain support as the lower tier candidates lose support.

O’Toole, in particular, continues to perform better each week as the lower candidates drop below five per cent, said Maggi.

Deepak Obhrai, Rick Peterson and Andrew Saxton have almost no support now, while less than three per cent of members would pick Chris Alexander, Steven Blaney, Pierre Lemieux or Brad Trost as their first choice.

Maggi said that while O’Leary continues to lead, he’s the most polarizing candidate among the top seven and he needs to crack the 25 per cent mark in order to win.

In March, O’Leary was the top choice for 24.85 per cent of members, but in the past several weeks he’s been hovering around the 22 per cent mark.

“If we continue polling new members and if this trend doesn’t reverse, I would expect that that’s not a good sign for O’Leary campaign,” said Maggi.

The iPolitics CPC Leadership Tracker, powered by Mainstreet, will be tracking the Conservative leadership race until members pick the next leader on May 27. For additional information on methodology and to subscribe to in-depth updates, click here.