The federal Conservatives are more than 12 percentage points ahead of their competition, according to national poll results that also show support for the NDP continuing to rise while Liberal support slid for the second-straight day.
According to the Nanos Research poll conducted for CTV and The Globe and Mail released Thursday morning, support for Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservative Party remains at 39 per cent nationwide.
The Liberals trail by more than 12 percentage points, with the support of 26.7 per cent of decided voters nationwide. That's down from 28.4 per cent on Wednesday.
The trend is headed the other way for the NDP, however, as Jack Layton's surging leadership scores have seen a rise in national support for his federal new Democrats to 22.1 per cent.
The Bloc Quebecois stands in third at 7.5 per cent and the Green Party at 3.4 per cent.
Regionally, the poll results point again to the emerging east-west divide split along the banks of the Ottawa River.
To the west, the Conservatives continue to dominate in Ontario, the Prairies and British Columbia.
Moving east, the Bloc continues to enjoy strong support in Quebec with 32 per cent of the decided vote. The NDP appears on track to better its 12.2 per cent showing in the 2008 vote, as 23.4 per cent of Quebecers told pollsters they now support Layton's party. The Liberals are third in the province at 20.8 per cent and the Tories fourth with 17.5 per cent.
And in Atlantic Canada, factoring in the regional results' 9.7 per cent margin of error, the Conservatives (36.3 per cent), Liberals (33.1 per cent) and NDP (28.3 per cent) are all in a heated three-way race there.
In terms of the factors voters expect to sway their ballot-box decision on May 2, the latest poll results show party policies remain top of mind for 53.2 per cent of voters.
Methodology: The results of this latest Nanos Research survey are based on a random, national telephone sample of 1,015 decided Canadians conducted between April 18-20. The margin of error is plus-minus 2.8 per cent, 19 times out of 20.
