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Conservative leader Stephen Harper no longer enjoys a comfortable lead ahead of the surging NDP, as a new poll shows the left-leaning party swelling to within just a few points of the reigning Tories.

According to the latest Forum Research poll, Jack Layton’s party enjoys the support of 31% of those surveyed — only three points behind the governing Conservatives, who fell to 34% from the 36% support the party gleaned as of April 21. The Liberals, having been reduced to third place in a slew of recent polls, dwindled to 22% in this latest survey, while the Bloc Quebecois remained unchanged at 6%.

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“With the NDP continuing to gain steam from coast to coast, and both the Liberal and Conservative party support lagging, the key question now is whether the NDP have the ground troops to deliver their vote on election day,” Lorne Bozinoff, president of Forum Research, said in a press release.

The poll shows the Tories losing considerable ground in the Atlantic provinces, where support has apparently slipped from 33% to 26% since April 21. There, NDP support rose 13 points to 35%. In La Belle Province, 40% of voters said they support the NDP, having usurped a small percentage of votes from both the Bloc and Liberal parties there.