Canada's Conservative Party was in a clear lead across the country over the Liberals led by Prime Minister Paul Martin for the first time since the federal election campaign began in late November last year, said a new poll published on Thursday.

The EKOS poll, done for the Toronto Star and La Presse, shows the Conservatives led by Stephen Harper with a lead of nearly six percentage points over the Liberals.

The Conservatives had the support of 36.2 percent of the people surveyed, while 30.4 percent said they would vote for the Liberals in the Jan. 23 election.

That lead is larger than the poll's margin of error - 2.7 percentage points, 19 times out of 20 - indicating a clear lead.

The poll also shows the New Democratic Party had the support of 17.9 percent, and the Bloc Quebecois had 10.4 percent of support nationally.

The Liberal's support in the province of Ontario, Liberal's traditional stronghold, had also slipped, where the Conservatives have to make significant gains. Ontario, with 106 of 308 parliamentary seats, is considered to be the decisive battleground for the election.

The results are based on a sample of 1,386 respondents who were questioned Tuesday and Wednesday.

Other recent polls have shown the Conservatives gaining on the Liberals, who went into the campaign with the lead.

The Conservatives and Liberals are in an actual tie nationally and statistically tied in Ontario, indicates a poll made by the Strategic Counsel for the CTV and the Globe and Mail on Wednesday.

The poll shows the Liberals and Conservatives have the same 32 percent of support while the New Democrats have 17 percent.

The momentum surge for the Conservatives comes after the Royal Canadian Moungted Police (RCMP) announced last week that it was conducting a criminal investigation to see if there was a leak of a Nov. 23 announcement on income trusts that allowed some insiders to profit.

Source: Xinhua