(EKOS) The federal Conservatives have reclaimed a small lead after losing some ground to the Liberals, a new EKOS poll suggests.
According to the latest poll results, released exclusively to CBC News, 32.5 per cent of respondents would vote for the Tories if an election were held today, compared with 27.9 per cent for the Liberals.
In recent weeks, the ruling Tories had enjoyed a notable lead over the Liberals. But in the last polling period, that advantage dried up, with the Tories polling at 29.7 per cent support, compared with 28.5 per cent for the Liberals. Now, the Tories are back up, with a nearly five-point lead over their political rivals.
All other parties remain mostly stable with the NDP at 17.4 per cent, the Green Party at 10.3 per cent and the Bloc Québécois at 9.2 per cent support.
Substantial gains
The poll also revealed some shifts over the course of the summer in terms of support among those with a university education.
The Liberals have seen substantial gains among this demographic from early summer (June 30 to July 6) to the current period (Aug 11-17), increasing their support to 34.4 per cent from 26.3 per cent — more than an eight-point gain.
But this growth has not fully been at the expense of the Conservative party, which has only seen a 3.5-point decrease in support in this group, falling to 29.2 per cent from 32.7 per cent over the same period.
The poll also found that 50.4 per cent of Canadians believe the country is moving in the right direction, compared with 39.2 per cent who say it is moving in the wrong direction, results that have remained stable over the past polls.
Right direction, wrong direction
As well, the percentage of Canadians who say the federal government is moving in the right direction is at 44 per cent, compared with 44.2 per cent who say the government is moving in the wrong direction.
Over the past three weeks, the percentage of Canadians who think that the government is moving in the wrong direction has been slightly decreasing, while the percentage of Canadians who think the government is moving in the right direction has been increasing slightly.
The random survey of 2,979 Canadians aged 18 and over was conducted Aug. 11-17 and carries a margin of error of plus or minus 1.8 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
