Poll: Canadian Liberals take small lead

OTTAWA, June 11 (UPI) -- With a Canadian federal election possible this year, the Liberal party has taken a lead over the minority Conservative government, a poll indicated Thursday.

The EKOS poll of 6,259 adults was conducted May 29 through June 9 for the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. It found the Liberals under leader Michael Ignatieff had 35 percent support to Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservatives with 30.3 percent.

Prior to last October's federal election, Conservatives had a 12-point lead, the CBC said.

Among the other three parties, the socialist New Democratic Party had 15.1 percent support, the Green Party 10.4 percent and the separatist Bloc Quebecois 9.2 percent, the poll said.

The poll had a 1 percent margin of error, EKOS said.

In January, the Liberals agreed not to force an election with a non-confidence vote on the Conservative budget on the condition Parliament was given a series of "report cards" on how the government was dealing with the recession.

Harper was scheduled to deliver the first of the reports Thursday and faces the possibility of being voted down.