Conservative Vote Dips Slightly In Wake Of Mid-East Turmoil

Toronto, ON - According to a new Ipsos Reid survey conducted on behalf of CanWest/Global, Conservative Party support has dipped slightly in the wake of the on-going turmoil in the Middle-East, dropping four points to 39% --but the Conservatives are still well positioned ahead of the Liberals (27%, +2 points), and NDP (17%, +2 points). In Quebec, the Bloc Quebecois garners 41% of federal votes (+3 points) versus 27% support for the Conservatives and 21% support for the Liberals.

• Support for the Conservative Party has dropped the most in the regions of Atlantic Canada (-12% to 38%), British Columbia (-12% to 36%) and Quebec (-6% to 27%).
• Liberal Party support is up in Atlantic Canada (+16% to 35%) and Quebec (+7% to 21%).
• The NDP has lost support in Alberta (-13% to 6%).

Currently, six in ten (60%) Canadians approve of the performance of Stephen Harper's Conservative government so far - 17% "strongly approve" this is essentially unchanged from the 62% approval rating given to Mr. Harper's government in late March.

Thirty-three percent of Canadians disapprove of the government's performance (15% strongly disapprove).

These are the findings of an Ipsos Reid poll conducted for CanWest News Service/Global News and fielded from July 25th to July 27th, 2006. For this survey, a representative randomly selected sample of 1000 adult Canadians was interviewed by telephone. With a sample of this size, the aggregate results are considered accurate to within +/-3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what they would have been had the entire adult Canadian population been polled. The margin of error will be larger within each sub-grouping of the survey population. These data were weighted to ensure the sample's regional and age/sex composition reflects that of the actual Canadian population according to Census data.

Please open the attached PDF to view the factum and detailed tables.

For more information on this news release, please contact:
John Wright
Senior Vice President
Ipsos Reid Public Affairs
(416) 324-2900
[email protected]

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