OTTAWA - A new poll suggests the gap between the Conservatives and Liberals has narrowed to three percentage points, another signal that a spring federal election may be on hold after all.
The survey by Decima Research, provided exclusively to The Canadian Press, put Tory support at 34 per cent nationally.
That's far short of majority government territory and two points back of where the Conservatives were on election day in January 2006.
The Liberals polled 31 per cent nationally, while the NDP got 15 per cent, the Green party 11, and the Bloc Quebecois, seven.
Political sabre-rattling by the Tory government in recent months had Liberals claiming Prime Minister Stephen Harper was set to engineer his own defeat and force an election.
But Decima CEO Bruce Anderson says volatility in public opinion makes that a very risky proposition for anyone seeking a majority mandate.
The situation is especially intriguing in Quebec, where the Bloc hit a new low of 29 per cent, and the upstart Greens tracked 13 per cent.
The Liberals led the Tories 23-20 in the province, while the NDP trailed with 10 per cent support.
The telephone poll of more than 1,000 respondents, contacted Thursday through Sunday, is considered accurate within plus or minus 3.1 per cent, 19 times in 20.
