Liberals (32%) And Tories (31%) Virtually Tied Nation-Wide -- But Grits Take Strong 11-Point Lead In Seat Rich Ontario (44% vs. 33%)

Toronto, ON - According to an Ipsos-Reid national survey of 1000 Canadians conducted from May 3rd to May 5th, 2005 and provided exclusively to CanWest/Global, the national Federal political horserace remains tightly contested between the Liberals (32%, up 2 points) and the Conservatives (31%, down 2 points) compared to a poll released exactly a week ago. However, it would appear that the Liberals have benefited the most in the past week as they have vaunted to take a commanding 11-point lead in the seat-rich and volatile province of Ontario (44% vs. 33%).

There also appears to be a dynamic among Canadians concerning why they think Mr. Harper and his party are committed to defeating the government and sending voters to the polls as soon as they can: Fifty-eight percent believe the Conservatives "just want to be in power" compared to four in ten (37%) who think the Conservatives want to pull the election trigger because "they sincerely believe that they can no longer support a Liberal government that is corrupt".

As for the other parties, if a Federal election were held today, 16% of voters would support the NDP (down 1 point), and 5% would support the Green Party (unchanged).

In Quebec, the Bloc Quebecois sits at 50% support (up 2 points) and holds a 30-point lead over their next closest challenger in this province, the Liberals (20%, down 1 point).

These are the findings of an Ipsos-Reid poll provided exclusively to CanWest/Global and conducted from May 3rd to May 5th, 2005. For the survey, a representative randomly selected sample of 1002 adult Canadians were interviewed by telephone. With a sample of this size, the aggregate results are considered accurate to within 1773.1 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 the 2001 Census data. Please open the attached PDF to view the full factum including graphical displays and the detailed tables.

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For more information on this news release, please contact:

Dr. Darrell Bricker
President & COO
Ipsos-Reid Public Affairs
(416) 324-2900