Near dead-heat in Canadian political poll

TORONTO, June 18 (UPI) -- Public support of Canada's two biggest political parties is divided almost equally within the margin of error of a poll published Thursday in Toronto.

A national EKOS telephone poll of 3,422 adult Canadians conducted June 10-16 found support for the Liberals at 33.7 percent while the Conservatives garnered 32.4 percent, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported.

That could be a statistical tie, as the poll's margin of error was 1.7 percentage points.

Among the other parties, the socialist New Democratic Party had 16.3 percent support, the Greens scored 9 percent and the separatist Bloc Quebecois had 8.4 percent support, the poll showed.

The balance was not accounted for in the report.

By region, pollster Frank Graves said the Liberals have the strongest support in the seat-rich provinces of Ontario and Quebec, while the Conservatives show the most strength in the West.

As for job performance, Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper had a 33 percent approval rating, while Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff scored 32 percent approval, the report said.