Canada's political landscape is changing, and the allegiances of Canadian voters are shifting to keep pace. A new survey says the Liberals still boast the most supporters, with the NDP outpacing the Tories and Alliance for second place.

CTV.ca News Staff

Canada's political landscape is changing, and the allegiances of Canadian voters are shifting to keep pace. A new survey says the Liberals still boast the most supporters, with the NDP outpacing the Tories and Alliance for second place.

In a new poll conducted by Ipsos-Reid for The Globe and Mail and CTV, more than 1,000 Canadians were asked who they'd vote for if a federal election were held tomorrow.

The clear winner was Paul Martin's Liberals -- with four in 10 Canadians saying they'd vote to keep the governing party in power.

But the 43 per cent support is down slightly from the figure a month earlier, before Martin was named new party leader.

According to Liberal caucus chair Stan Keyes, however, the dip isn't cause for alarm in his party ranks.

"That's because we started so high," Keyes told CTV News. "It's hard to get a bounce when you're so high in the polls."

The plunge in Liberal fortunes was most significant in Quebec, where support dropped from 50 to 40 per cent since the last poll. The Bloc Quebecois narrowing the gap -- its 38 per cent support has eaten all but two points out of the strong grip the Liberals held on Quebec voters in October.

And in the rest of Canada, the Liberals' loss may be the NDPs' gain, as new leader Jack Layton has watched his party's numbers squeak up slightly, buoyed by growing support in the West and Ontario.

The reason, Layton surmises, is obvious.

"People have just discovered the Liberals have chosen a conservative to lead their party. Paul Martin's a very conservative guy."

That's an argument Liberal MP John Harvard concedes is often made, but insists holds little water.

"I think there is an assumption by some Canadians that he's to the right but I've worked with the man for years and I know how moderate and well balanced he is."

Still, 15 per cent of those surveyed said they'd vote NDP in an election tomorrow. That's up four per cent from the month before and good enough to barely edge out Progressive Conservative supporters who numbered 14 per cent.

The Canadian Alliance could count on one in 10 votes in such an election, down one percentage point since the last poll.

Apparently disgruntled by the party's entanglement in the unite-the-right merger effort, support for both the Progressive Conservatives and Canadian Alliance dropped in the West.

In Saskatchewan and Manitoba, the Tories dropped eight points to claim 10 per cent support. And the Alliance lost voters in Alberta and B.C.

The Green Party made its biggest gains in Western Canada where it gained five points in British Columbia (from eight per cent to 13 per cent), and 5 points in Alberta (one per cent to six per cent).

For the survey, pollsters talked to 1,057 adults over a three-day period in late November. The results are considered accurate to within ±3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.