[LINK] "NDP in reach of majority, new poll suggests"

[rfmcdonald]

The Toronto Star's Allan Woods reported this morning about the exceptional strength of the NDP nationally. A NDP majority?

The Forum Research poll for the Toronto Star projects the NDP with enough support to win 174 seats in the Oct. 19 election. Justin Trudeau’s Liberals now sit in second place with 30 per cent support, while Stephen Harper’s Conservatives are losing support and have the backing of just 23 per cent of the 1,440 Canadians surveyed.

The poll, conducted on Sunday and Monday, may have captured both anger at the revelations emerging from testimony of Conservative officials at Sen. Mike Duffy’s fraud trial, as well as the recent stock market scare, which has heightened talk of a faltering Canadian economy, said Forum Research president Lorne Bozinoff.

“Maybe you could say it’s a perfect storm for the Tories because they’re the ones who seem to have taken this on the chin,” he said. “We’ve said all along that if this economy goes south it’s over for the Tories. They’re in charge, they’re it and on top of that they’ve built a lot of their campaign around being great economic managers.”

Harper’s campaign headaches seem to have benefitted the NDP, which now has 54 per cent support in Quebec, 41 per cent in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, and 39 per cent in British Columbia.

In Ontario, the province with the most seats in the House of Commons, Mulcair’s New Democrats lead with 36 per cent of respondents saying they would vote for the party. The Liberals are second with 33 per cent and the Tories have 26 per cent support.

[. . . In Québec], the once-dominant sovereigntist Bloc Québécois is in third place behind the Liberals and just ahead of the Conservatives, and is projected not to win any seats in the Oct. 19 vote.