A recent poll shows the Conservatives pull ahead of the Liberals for the first time since the election began.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s party was ahead of Liberal Leader Mark Carney by 1 per cent, according to a poll by Innovative Research.
“The Conservatives have narrowed the Liberal momentum gap. The Liberal campaign is still scoring more points with more people, but their advantage is much smaller. The Liberal lead on awareness has dropped from 18 points to 7 points,” reads the poll.
“The Liberal advantage on campaign impact has dropped from 26 points more positive than the CPC to 9 points.”
A previous poll from earlier this week by Juno News saw Liberal Leader Mark Carney’s party holding 42% of support among decided voters, while Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives sat at 33%,
The Conservatives have won the popular vote in the past two federal elections but weren’t able to secure as many seats as the Liberals.
This is largely due to the Liberals’ ability to win eastern ridings that are tightly divided, often winning with less than 40 per cent of the vote, whereas the Conservatives tend to do well in the Prairies.
However, the latest poll shows the Conservatives leading in B.C. and are now tied with the Liberals in Ontario in a deadlock at 41 per cent.
Under Poilievre, the party is boasting higher support in both B.C. and Ontario than seen in the past two federal elections. However, the entrance of Carney into the race as former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s replacement saw the Conservatives lose record-high support.
The NDP and Bloc Québécois are both showing a resurgence as well, which pollsters note is likely the result of Liberal voters straying from the Liberal party.
“Carney’s 8-point lead from last week slipped to 2-points this week as Poilievre regained all his losses and Carney slipped slightly from his peak,” reads the poll. “However, Carney (43%) remains the preferred leader over Poilievre (33%) on handling Canada-U.S relations.”
Carney has faced a number of scandals while on the campaign trail, including his refusal to disclose his assets, his close ties with China’s communist government and his ex-company Brookfield Asset Management’s dealings with the Trump family.
The poll was conducted between March 26 and March 31. It had a sample size of 1,742 Canadians, 18 years or older. Results were nationally weighted to Census data from Statistics Canada. Due to the poll being an online survey, a margin of error could not be calculated.