According to an Ekos poll published by the Toronto Star today, just 25 per cent of voters nationally would vote for the Liberals if an election were held today.
The Conservatives would get 36 per cent support, the NDP 20.5, the Bloc 12.6 and the Greens five per cent.
The polling for this started last Thursday and went through to Saturday. Groupaction president Jean Brault's testimony was made public by Justice John Gomery's inquiry on Thursday (1,125 people were polled, making for a margin of error of 2.9 per cent).
The Ipsos-Reid poll from last week polled from Tuesday to Thursday. It had the Liberals at 34 per cent and the Tories at 30 per cent.
The Grits took 37 per cent of the vote in the last election.
While polls can't be directly compared unless they asked the same question in the same order (etc., etc.), but I think we can safely conclude that in general, the Brault testimony has provided a hard kick in the nuts to the Liberals.
Prime Minister Paul Martin said today he still has the "moral authority" to govern.
But this has to embolden the Tories.For one thing, the Ekos poll gives them a 40-33 lead in Ontario (note: the margin of error will be substantially higher for regional breakouts). The Liberals captured 43 per cent of the vote there in the June 28 election.
For one thing, what's Martin going to do to bounce back?
He's delivered his budget, and he blew the Americans off on missile defence, so what's left?
Bleak times to be a Liberal.
I think if the next round of polling shows the Liberals are still bleeding, a spring election is a very real possibility.
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