MONTREAL — Although polls suggest the Conservatives are making unexpected gains in Quebec, the Liberals say they aren't worried.

Even with some surveys showing the two parties neck-and-neck, Liberals insist there's still plenty of time before the Jan. 23 vote to turn party fortunes around.

Tory MPs have been rare birds in Quebec over the last decade, but there seems to be more interest this time around.

Stephen Harper has been featured on the front of prominent Quebec newspapers as polls showed surprising Toronto strength.

An in-depth feature exploring Harper's political past and his ideas for Canada's future was splashed Saturday on page 1 of Le Devoir.

The Conservatives are now polling at close to 20 per cent -- up from about eight per cent at the start of the campaign.

There are high hopes that the party could win as many as three seats in Quebec after failing to elect a single MP in 2004.

The Bloc Quebecois retains a commanding lead in the province and is pushing the Liberals hard.

Stephane Dion, former intergovernmental affairs minister and a die-hard Liberal federalist was asked Saturday about growing Tory support. Would it be better for Quebecers to cast ballots for the Conservatives, a federalist party, than to vote for the separatists?

"I think we will be able to convince Quebecers more and more to not vote for the Bloc and then to consider the options,'' Dion said.

He says the Liberals can go after Harper:

"The key point is: Where would Canada be today if we'd followed the views of Mr. Harper in (recent) years?

"We'd be in the war in Iraq, the U.S. ballistic missile defence program, we'd have fought Kyoto instead of being a champion of it.''

Across Canada, recent surveys suggest a growing surge of Conservative support as the Liberals continue to be buffeted by implied scandal.

Twice in this election campaign, they have been rocked by news that the RCMP is looking into alleged Liberal misconduct -- first regarding concerns that news of government policy on income trusts was leaked to traders, and most recently about how a secretive national-unity fund was spent during the Quebec referendum in 1995.

The latter has stoked hostility in Quebec, which was already upset over the sponsorship scandal and the misuse by senior Liberals of funds that were supposed to promote federalism.