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Breaking News: Conservatives/Liberals Tied in Latest Poll
Breaking News: Conservatives/Liberals Tied in Latest Poll
Canada's Conservatives, Liberals Tied in Latest Poll, SES Says
Dec. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Canada's governing Liberal Party is statistically tied with the Conservative Party in polls for the first time since the election campaign began Nov. 29 after a police probe of a possible tax policy leak was made public.
The Liberals have the support of 35 percent of decided voters and the Conservatives have 34 percent, today's CPAC-SES Nightly Tracking poll found. The poll of 1,200 people has a margin of error of 2.9 percentage points. The vote is Jan. 23.
The poll is the first taken since Canada's Royal Canadian Mounted Police said Dec. 28 that they're investigating a possible leak of Finance Minister Ralph Goodale's Nov. 23 plan not to change income trusts' tax-exempt status. Trusts such as Yellow Pages Income Fund surged in trading before the announcement.
``Yesterday, when Canadians were watching the news, that's all they saw was that the RCMP was starting a criminal investigation,'' SES Research President Nikita Nanos said in a telephone interview from Ottawa. ``It's a new twist to people's view of the Liberal Party.''
There is no evidence of wrongdoing or illegal activity by Goodale or anyone else at this time, the RCMP has said. Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin has rejected requests from opposition politicians who want Goodale to step down during the probe. That decision may have hurt Martin, Nanos said.
``When we look at measures such as trust and vision for Canada, Paul Martin actually took a hit yesterday,'' he said. ``He was down 10 percentage points on both of those measures.''
A spokeswoman for the Liberal Party wasn't immediately available to comment.
Today's poll is based on interviews conducted Dec. 23, 28 and 29. No polling was done over the Christmas holidays.
Martin was ousted by lawmakers, led by opposition Conservative Leader Stephen Harper, on Nov. 28 over allegations Liberal Party officials received kickbacks in exchange for advertising contracts in Quebec.