New AR Poll: 4% Conservative Lead

Angus-Reid has released a new poll today, as reported by the Toronto Star. Angus-Reid has not updated their website yet, which is odd as they are usually very quick with that. The poll was taken between August 25 and August 26 and involved 1,003 Canadians. The national results:

Conservatives - 34%
Liberals - 30%
New Democrats - 18%
Greens - 9%
Bloc Quebecois - 8%

So, a good result for the Tories but nothing out of the ordinary. The NDP result is very good. As Angus-Reid is my highest-rated polling firm, these are important numbers to note.

As I don't have the full details yet, I can only give a partial description of the poll.

In British Columbia, the Conservatives have taken a strong lead with 43%, followed by the NDP at 28%. The Liberals are in third, with the Greens in fourth at 10%. This Green result demonstrates that there definitely is an upward trend for the party in British Columbia.

In Alberta and the Prairies, the Tories have a strong lead (62% and 51%, respectively) while the Liberals have edged ahead in Ontario (37% to 35%). A 13% for the NDP in this province, however, is very worrisome, especially considering the Greens have 15% support.

In Quebec, the Liberals and Bloc Quebecois are tied at 33% with the Conservatives at 16%. In Atlantic Canada, the NDP has 33%, a very, very good result. I don't have information about the other parties in the region.

As to who would make the best Prime Minister, Stephen Harper is at 27%, followed by Michael Ignatieff at 17% and Jack Layton at 12%. With such low numbers, we must assume "none of the above" was by far the most popular answer.

This means that, in the Best PM track, Harper has dropped one point to 28%, Ignatieff has dropped three points to 22%, and Layton has dropped one point to 13%.

More information to come as more details emerge!