Support for the federal New Democrats continues to erode in Quebec and Ontario with the Liberals showing some gains, a new poll has found.
The Conservatives still lead nationally by eight percentage points, but the NDP and Liberals are now statistically tied among decided voters, the Nanos Research poll conducted for CTV and the Globe and Mail shows.
The Tories have 35.7 per cent support, down slightly from December, followed by the Liberals at 27.6 per cent and the Opposition NDP at 25.2 per cent.
The Liberals, who just held their biennial convention in Ottawa, moved ahead two percentage points at the expense of the NDP, whose support dropped by three.
The Green Party and the Bloc sat relatively unchanged at 4.5 per cent and 5.6 per cent respectively.
But the NDP's decline in support was most noticeable in Quebec and Ontario.
The Liberals sat at 26.5 per cent in Quebec, up almost four points, while the NDP dropped to 29 per cent from 33.4 as it continues the process to select a new leader after Jack Layton's death last summer.
Support for the NDP in the province has eroded almost 21 percentage points since its peak of 50 per cent around the time of Layton's death.
The Bloc also gained four points in the province to sit at 24.1 per cent, while the Tories dropped to 15.1 per cent from 20.8.
Pollster Nik Nanos said with their declining support in Quebec, "the New Democrats have to be very nervous at this particular point in time."
Nanos told CTV News that the party's falling numbers come at "what should be an exciting time because of their leadership. So what we've seen is, with the absence of Jack Layton in the province of Quebec, we've seen the numbers for the New Democrats slide almost every single month."
In Ontario, NDP support has dropped significantly since December, now sitting at 16.9 per cent, down from 29.5 per cent before the holidays.
The Tories were up almost eight percentage points to 42.1 in the province, followed by the Liberals at 35.1 per cent, up almost four.
Green Party support was up slightly in Ontario to 5.4 per cent from 3.5.
Nanos said the polling data shows the Tories to be in a strong position heading into the next parliamentary session, which begins on Monday.
"For the Conservatives, with an eight-point lead nationally, it means they're probably going to be very confident coming into the House," Nanos said.
"For the New Democrats, they're probably going to be testy in order to try to recharge their support, especially in the province of Quebec. And for the Liberals, they will probably be a little hopeful, tentative, but hopeful to try to hold on to some of the gains that they've made."
When asked what was the most pressing issue facing the country, jobs and the economy beat out health care in the poll, with 27.8 per cent saying it was the most important compared to health care at 20.3 per cent.
Harper maintained his lead as the most trusted leader at 30.1 per cent, with Liberal party interim leader Bob Rae up two points to 16.8 per cent. Interim NDP leader Nicole Turmel dropped slightly to 8.7 per cent.
In terms of competence, Harper was down to 37.8 per cent from 38.4 in December. Rae was up two points at 17.1 per cent and Turmel was down three to five per cent.
The Nanos/CTV/Globe poll was a random telephone survey of 1,201 voting-age Canadians that's accurate to within plus or minus 2.8 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
