There are a small but growing number of Conservatives calling for the resignation of Stephen Harper.

Last week, four Quebec Conservatives called for Harper's head, saying he would never win the next election so he should resign now.

Now, a Toronto voice is the latest to join the chorus. Ontario Conservative Party member Carol Jamieson has written an open letter to the party calling for Harper to step aside.

Jamieson is?the vice-chair of all the Greater Toronto Area Conservative councils and speaks for a significant voice in Toronto, which has a population of four million people.

In her letter, she writes: "The time has come for Stephen Harper to stop dreaming that his destiny is 24 Sussex Drive. That day will only come if one of its residents invites him over because they are looking for a stick-in-the-mud dinner guest."

But the letter may cost Jamieson.?

CTV Ottawa bureau chief Robert?Fife?says that sources have told him that the Conservative Party's national council is planning a conference call sometime today and are going to move to kick Jamieson out of the party.

Conservative support stalled

Harper spent the summer on the BBQ circuit trying to draw up more support for his leadership and also launched an aggressive advertising campaign. But the latest poll numbers suggest Canadians are still not sure that he is the best candidate to lead the country.

A Leger Marketing survey, conducted Sept. 6-11, pegged Liberal support at 40 per cent -- virtually the same level of backing they received in rolling to their majority government in 2000.

Conservative support meanwhile was well back at 24 per cent, while the NDP stood at 15 per cent and the Bloc Quebecois at 13 per cent. The numbers were reached after distribution of the 20 per cent of respondents who were undecided.

With Parliament due to resume next week, Fife says he's not sure why Harper hasn't come out yet to address these voices calling for his resignation.

"He seems to be hiding from the media and hiding from the public in his bunker over here behind me on the Hill," Fife told Canada AM from Parliament Hill.

"He has not come out to speak and address these issues, which will be a mistake, because he has to get out there and try to dampen this down and try to convince the Conservative rank and file that he is prepared to run a strong election campaign and that he can defeat the Liberals."

Prime Minister Paul Martin has promised to call an election within 30 days of Justice John Gomery tabling his final report on the federal sponsorship scandal, which he now says will occur Feb. 1.

But if Harper's leadership looks shaky and if Liberal support continues to hold in the polls, Martin may be tempted to call a snap election this fall.

The poll numbers suggest the Liberals would win another minority, but another failed election for the Conservatives would almost surely doom Harper's leadership.

Fife suggests that it may be in the Conservatives' best interest as well to try to press for a fall election, rather than wait for the spring.

"There is every possibility that in the spring, with the money coming in from the gas taxes for the Liberals that they can spend more money, buy Canadians' votes and win a slim majority government," Fife notes.

"So it is in the interests of the Conservatives to see if they can get this government defeated."