The lead of Canada's ruling Liberal Party narrowed in the first days of campaigning for the national election on November 27th, according to a poll in the Globe and Mail newspaper.
The Ipsos-Reid poll, conducted for CTV and the Globe and Mail, showed the opposition Canadian Alliance Party with the support of 28 per cent of decided voters, up eight percentage points from the previous such poll before the election call.
It was the highest level the party, or its predecessor, the Reform Party, has ever enjoyed in a national poll, the newspaper said.
The poll showed the Liberals with 45 per cent support, down from 52 per cent earlier this month. Support for the Quebec-based separatist Bloc Quebecois was little changed at 9 per cent, and backing for the left-leaning New Democratic Party and right-of-centre Progressive Conservatives held steady at 8 per cent.
"We have a race," Mr Darrell Bricker, president of public affairs at Ipsos-Reid, said.