OTTAWA—The New Democrats are riding strong public support, helped by their performance in the Commons and the addition of their new leader, Thomas Mulcair, a new poll shows.

A survey done this week had the NDP tied with the Conservatives in public support at 35 per cent each. Just one in five Canadians — 19 per cent — backed the Liberals, their level of support in the last election.

The NDP are now seen as the most effective opposition, with 40 per cent of those polled endorsing the party’s performance. That’s up from 32 per cent earlier in the month.

At the same time, fewer than 25 per cent see the Liberals as the most effective opposition, down from 30 per cent at the start of the month.

The NDP have the strong support among younger voters, women and those living in the Prairies, British Columbia and Quebec, according to the poll conducted by Forum Research.

Approval ratings for Stephen Harper, Bob Rae and Thomas Mulcair are roughly tied at around 32 per cent. But almost half of those surveyed are still taking stock of Mulcair, who was selected party leader just last weekend.

Still, one-quarter of respondents say the choice of Mulcair as leader makes them more likely to vote NDP, and this includes 23 per cent of Liberal party supporters and about 18 per cent Green Party backers.

“It is clear that the election of Thomas Mulcair as NDP leader has considerably improved the party’s prospects,” Forum Research president Lorne Bozinoff said in a statement.

Fifty per cent of both Liberal and NDP supporters back the idea of joint nomination meetings, where only one candidate is run against a Conservative candidate in a riding. Still, support for the idea, proposed by NDP leadership contender Nathan Cullen, has dropped about 10 points since the beginning of March.

Support of joint nomination runs highest in Quebec at 55 per cent while just a third of those polled back the idea in Ontario, B.C., the Prairies and Alberta.

The poll is based on an interactive voice response telephone survey of 1,638 randomly selected adults on March 26 and March 27. Margin of error is plus or minus 2.4 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

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