Canada's major opposition Liberal narrowed its gap with the ruling Conservatives in popular support in the midst of the Mulroney-Schreiber affair, according to a poll published Monday.
The Ipsos Reid survey conducted for CanWest News Service and Global National revealed that the spread between the two parties has been reduced from 14 percentage points in early November to 10points last week.
The poll said that the Tories had dropped to 39 percent support, down three percentage points, while the Liberals had been bumped up one point to 29 percent. The NDP held steady at 15 percent support while the Green Party went up slightly by one point to 8 percent of the vote.
The survey was conducted following allegations of improper dealings between former Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and German-Canadian businessman Karlheinz Schreiber. Mulroney allegedly struck an agreement with Schreiber while still in office and took cash payments from him for help in businesses.
Schreiber also alleged that current Prime Minister Stephen Harper had known of his relationship with Mulroney before the affair went public, which had prompted opposition calls to include Harper into the probe.
Harper, who had praised Mulroney as a friend and political adviser, distanced himself from the former prime minister by calling an inquiry into the dealings between Schreiber and Mulroney.
Darrell Bricker, president of Ipsos Reid, said the poll indicates that the Conservatives have so far avoided major political damage from the affair.
"I don't think these specific events have had much impact. ...it's not like it has crashed the numbers in the same way, for example, as the sponsorship scandal hit Paul Martin and the Liberals," he said.
The Conservatives won power in January 2006 with 36 percent of the vote. Under Canada's electoral system, a party needs to win around 40 percent of the vote to stand a chance of taking a majority of the 308 seats in the House of Commons. The Conservatives currently have 126 seats, while the Liberals have 96.
The survey is based on telephone interviews on Tuesday through Thursday last week with 1,000 adults.
Source:Xinhua
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