Conservatives Maintain Small Lead Over Liberals: EKOS Poll

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EKOS poll suggests that Harpers' Conservative Maintain small lead over Ignatieff's Liberals.

An EKOS poll released this morning suggests that despite many controversial issues, such as the Long Gun Registry, Hike of Employment Insurance premiums, Long Form Census and a reduced GDP, the Conservative have maintained a small lead over the Liberals.

The poll suggests that 33.1% would vote for the Conservatives, 29. 9% for the Liberals and 13.3% for the New Democratic Party, Green Party with 10.9% and the BLOC with 10.1%.

It is noteworthy that the BLOC only fields candidates for the Province of Quebec.

A seat projection issued for September 8th to 14th suggests that the Conservatives would again be elected as a minority government, albeit with fewer seats.  The projection has the Conservatives with 124 seats, Liberals 96 seats, NDP 36 seats, the BLOC 49 and Green Party with 2 seats.  One seat would go to an Independent or Other.

The poll also asked the question whether voters would prefer a Harper led minority or an Ignatieff led coalition.  39% would prefer a Harper led coalition, while 41% would prefer a Ignatieff led coalition.  Essentially this is a split in the electorate, since the error margin is 1.6% 19 times out of 20.

Needless to say, none of the political parties will jump for an election with these results.  GDP figures released this morning show that the Canadian economy has declined by 0.1%.  Most experts believe this will only be a one month decline.