Conservatives edge ahead of Liberals in voter support, breaking gridlock: poll

globalnews.ca:

The gridlock between Liberal and Conservative supporters appears to have broken, new polling suggests, with the Tories edging slightly ahead.

In an Ipsos poll conducted exclusively for Global News and released Tuesday, 37 per cent of Canadians said they would vote for Pierre Poilievre’s Conservative Party, signalling a four-point jump since February.

If a federal election were to take place tomorrow, the Liberals would fall behind with 32 per cent of votes, which is one point lower than they got four months ago, when Ipsos last conducted their poll.

Since 2019, the Liberals and the Conservatives have been “locked in a logjam,” but this is the first time that Ipsos polling has shown either side being able to really break out, said Darrell Bricker, global CEO of Ipsos public affairs.

He said the poll was reflecting “fatigue” with the Liberal government more so than growing support for the Conservatives.

“People are really not that happy with the direction of the country at the moment and they lay a lot of the blame for that right now on the Trudeau administration,” Bricker said.

“So I think that less than Poilievre actually attracting a lot of people, it’s really people taking a look because they’re really not satisfied with the current situation with the federal government.”

Canada’s two main federal parties held onto their seats in federal byelections that took place in Ontario, Manitoba and Quebec last month. But as pollsters had predicted, some of the races were tighter than in past elections.

Support for the New Democratic Party, led by Jagmeet Singh, also appears to have waned, with 16 per cent of  respondents saying they would vote NDP – a drop of two points.

The New Democrats entered into a governance deal with the