Tory (37%) Lead Over Grits (27%) Widens To Ten Points

Toronto, ON - Following the Canada 150 thinker's conference in Montreal, the Liberal Party has received no bounce in vote support, according to a new Ipsos Reid poll conducted on behalf of Canwest News Service and Global National. The policy-revitalization conference, which concluded that a priority must be placed on healthcare, training and education, has failed to recruit a greater number of Canadian voters to the Liberal ranks.

Moreover, the troubles with junior Minister Helena Guergis, her husband and former Tory MP Rahim Jaffer, the Afghanistan detainee-transfer issue and the public, international rebuke over Prime Minister Harper's maternal-health plan are all potential fodder with which the Liberals could bombard the ruling Conservatives. However, the Liberals have failed to capitalize on these issues, and the gap between the Conservatives and the Liberals has widened to ten points.

If an election were held tomorrow, Prime Minister Harper and the Conservative Party would have the support of 37% of decided voters, up 3 points, while Michael Ignatieff and the Liberals would only garner 27% support, down 1 point. It often seems as though the Leader of the Opposition is missing-in-action, and it is clear that he is having trouble resonating with voters, much like his predecessor Stephane Dion.

The NDP, under Jack Layton, would receive 15% of the vote if an election were to happen tomorrow (down 3 points), while the Green Party would garner the support of one in ten (10%) Canadians, unchanged. The Bloc would also receive 10% support nationally, up 1 point, while 7% of voters remain undecided.

In the seat-rich province of Ontario, the Tories (39%) hold a tenuous lead over the Liberals (36%), while the NDP (14%) and the Green Party (10%) are well back.

In Quebec, the Bloc (42%) has opened a commanding lead over the Liberals (23%), Conservatives (20%), the Green Party (8%) and the NDP (7%).

These are the findings of an Ipsos Reid poll conducted on behalf of Canwest News Service and Global Television from April 6 to 8, 2010. For the survey, a representative randomly-selected sample of 1,003 adult Canadians was interviewed by telephone. With a sample of this size, the results are considered accurate to within 177 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what they would have been had the entire adult population of Canada been polled. The margin of error will be larger within regions and for other sub-groupings of the survey population. These data were weighted to ensure that the sample's regional and age/sex composition reflects that of the actual Canadian population according to Census data. All sample surveys and polls may be subject to other sources of error, including, but not limited to coverage error, and measurement error.

For more information on this news release, please contact:
Darrell Bricker, PhD
President and CEO
Ipsos Reid Public Affairs
(416) 324-2001
[email protected]

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