OMAR EL AKKAD
OTTAWA — Globe and Mail Update Last updated on Tuesday, Mar. 31, 2009 08:52PM EDT
Both the Liberals and Conservatives are facing significant challenges in key battleground ridings, a new poll shows – with the Liberals slumping in Ontario and Conservative support dropping in Quebec.
According to a Strategic Counsel daily poll conducted for CTV and The Globe and Mail, support for the Liberals in key Ontario battleground ridings is 24 per cent, 5 percentage points down since the start of the election campaign and a full 15 points below what the Liberals scored in the same ridings in the 2006 election.
The Conservatives, on the other hand, are drawing 43 per cent of support in the same ridings, up 6 points from the 2006 election.
However, the Conservatives are facing trouble in Quebec, where the party's gains during the early part of the campaign made a majority a very real possibility for the Tories.
In the days after the writ was dropped, the Tories drew 32 per cent of voters in Quebec battleground ridings. Today, that number is down to 22 per cent, moving the Conservatives back to what they polled in 2006.
But the Liberals have failed to capitalize on that drop. Their support is 19 per cent, 9 percentage points lower than the 2006 number.
As the Conservatives drop, the Bloc Québécois is on the rise in the province. The Bloc now draws 42 per cent of battleground riding support in Quebec, the poll shows – 5 points better than the party's showing in the 2006 election.
The poll, conducted Sept. 27 to Oct. 1, tracks 45 of the closest ridings in British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec. Of the 45 ridings, 20 are in Ontario, 15 are in Quebec and 10 are in British Columbia. In the last election or by-election, the Liberals won 17 of them, the Conservatives 16, the Bloc Québécois eight and the NDP four.
Surveys are conducted daily, with three-day running tallies comprising a poll of 1,325 Canadians.
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