The New Democrats have surged to a double-digit lead in public support, gaining more distance over the other federal parties than they have at any time in the past two years, according to a new Forum Research poll.

About four in 10 Canadians surveyed (39 per cent) said they would cast their ballot for the NDP if an election were held today.

The Conservatives fell from neck-and-neck status with the NDP last week to 28 per cent of voter support Sunday, while the Liberals were steady at 25 per cent.

Projected onto an enlarged 338-seat House of Commons, the survey results indicate the NDP would command a solid minority of 160 seats — 10 short of a majority.

The poll, conducted hours after Prime Minister Stephen Harper kicked off a marathon campaign Sunday for the Oct. 19 election, reveals the NDP, under Thomas Mulcair’s leadership, has turned its flagging fortunes around.

Last December, even though it was the official Opposition, it was a distant third, according to Forum data, trailing with 17-per-cent support. The Liberals, under Justin Trudeau, were dominant at that point, with 41 per cent.

The Liberals have since gone from a comfortable lead to a three-way tie for third place in the course of a year, poll results show.

“I … haven’t found a single instance of the NDP having a double-digit lead before today,” Lorne Bozinoff, president of Forum Research, told the Star.

“Now the government has released the hounds, as it were, people … are coming off the fence and ending up with the NDP for now,” he added in a statement.

The campaign — twice the typical length — will be the longest, and likely the costliest, election in modern Canadian history.

“Much can happen in that time because campaigns, and their errors, forced and unforced, do make a difference,” Bozinoff noted.

Sunday’s poll found a distinct gender gap in the Conservative vote, which attracts more than a third of male voters (34 per cent) but fewer than a quarter of women (22 per cent). The gap works the other way for the NDP: 35 per cent of male voters and an even higher 42 per cent of women.

After tying with Harper in previous polls as preferred choice for prime minister, Mulcair is now seen as the top choice, compared to Harper and Trudeau, who ranks slightly lower than both.

The NDP has stated its openness to a coalition with the Liberals, who last month expressed resistance to the idea. Forum data shows more than two-thirds of Liberal and NDP supporters (68 per cent) back it.

In Ontario, the NDP and Conservatives are virtually tied, with the Liberals lagging by double digits. The NDP has a solid lead over the Grits in Quebec, while the Bloc Québécois and Conservatives trail.

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The NDP also leads in British Columbia, while the Conservatives dominate the traditionally right-wing Alberta, despite the provincial NDP’s landslide victory there in May.

In the formerly Liberal fortress of Atlantic Canada, the NDP has nearly half the support (45 per cent), while the Liberals are in a solid second (38 per cent).

The Forum Research poll was conducted between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Sunday using an interactive voice-response telephone survey. Weighted statistically by age, region and other variables, it polled 1,399 randomly selected Canadians age 18 or older.

Results are considered accurate plus or minus three percentage points, 19 times out of 20.