Tories gain support but O’Toole lags Trudeau, Singh in poll

A new poll suggests the Conservatives are back within striking distance of the Liberals after a slump in support late last year amid internal grumbling about the party’s election loss.

The Leger poll, conducted Jan. 2123, pegged Conservative support at 31 per cent, back to the same level of support the party enjoyed before last fall’s federal election.

Liberal support stood at 34 per cent, down two percentage points from a December survey.

Leger executive vice-president Christian Bourque said this marks the second month in a row in which the Tories have seen small gains after dropping just below 30 per cent last November. It puts them back within “striking range of the Liberals,” he said.

However, the poll suggests Canadians still aren’t sold on Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole, who continues to trail Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh as the best choice for prime minister.

The online survey of 1,525 adult Canadians was conducted Jan. 2113. It cannot be assigned a margin of error because internet-based polls are not considered random samples.

The poll suggests Canadians’ voting intentions have changed little since the Sept. 20 federal election, when they handed Trudeau’s Liberals their second consecutive minority mandate and returned all parties to Parliament with an almost unchanged number of seats.