Virtual three-way tie ahead of Canada election

Ottawa, September 5

Canada's federal election is too close to call, according to a poll which showed a virtual three-way tie a little more than a month before voters cast their ballots.

The poll taken ahead of the October 19 vote finds the ruling Conservatives, led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and centrist Liberals, nearly even with the left-leaning New Democrats.

According to a survey by the Ekos polling firm, which showed the New Democrats hanging onto an insignificant lead with 30.2 per cent voter support -- well within the margin of error.

Harper's Tories, meanwhile, had 29.5 per cent support, and the Liberals polled 27.7 per cent in the survey of some 3,243 Canadian voters.

The sampling error for the August 26 to September 1 survey was 1.7 per cent.

Ekos noted a recent slip in voter support for the New Democrats, attributable, it said, to "promiscuous progressive voters," some of whom recently have shifted their support to the Liberals.

"Ironically, this is probably increasing Harper's prospects of re-election, precisely the opposite of the goal of those voters casting back and forth across the NDP and the Liberal Party in search of an antidote to Harper rule," Ekos said.

It noted that the New Democrats have fallen back across the country, except in Quebec where they remain the dominant party, and are "no longer a rallying point for disgruntled voters."

The party, which is hoping to govern Canada for the first time, has lost traction with seniors while the Liberals clawed back lost university student support.

On the economy, a Liberal pledge to invest billions of dollars in infrastructure appears to be resonating with voters more than Tory and New Democrat promises of balanced budgets. —AFP