Canada's opposition Liberals jumped six percentage points ahead of the ruling Conservatives, a new poll showed on Monday, after the party picked former environment minister, Stephane Dion, as its new leader.
Dion, an outside candidate at the start of the race, pipped his rivals late on Saturday to win the leadership of the Liberals, who were defeated by the Conservatives amid a patronage scandal in a national election in January. His focus is now on preparing for an election expected in the first half of next year.
A Strategic Counsel poll of 1,000 Canadian voters, taken hours after Dion's win, showed support for the Liberals at 37 percent, compared with the Conservatives' 31 percent and the New Democrats' 14 percent. The poll, published in The Globe and Mail newspaper, showed the Liberals had gained five percentage points from a similar poll in October when the Liberals and Conservatives were tied at 32 percent. Dion admitted it would be a challenge to persuade voters to back a party, which was in power from 1993 to 2006 and has dominated politics for the last century.