WINNIPEG — The Liberals in Manitoba are gaining momentum with a month left until the federal election.
A new Probe Research poll conducted for the Winnipeg Free Press puts the Liberals and Conservatives neck and neck with 39 per cent of decided voters.
“The Liberals are now in a tie with the Conservatives in Manitoba,” said Curtis Brown, vice-president of Probe Research, “if you think to the last election, the Liberals were really in the ditch.”
Liberal support has jumped by 10 percentage points since June while NDP support has dropped by five percentage points.
“The NDP really aren’t in the game here, NDP are third, their support is down from the last election,” said Brown.
Brown says that could have something to do with the issues the provincial NDP government has experienced, from party candidates publicly denouncing support for leader Greg Selinger to the controversial PST hike.
“The NDP brand in Manitoba has been damaged,” said Brown, “it’s interesting because Manitoba has a long history of voting NDP provincially but I think there’s fatigue with the NDP in Manitoba provincially and I think that’s affecting the federal party.”
Outside of Winnipeg, Conservatives hold 49 per cent support from decided voters, while that number is down 15 per cent from the last election, Brown says it’s all about who turns out to vote on election day. He says the Liberals usually hold the younger vote but those are less likely to vote.
“The Conservatives have a lot more support among older voters and I think that’s really critical because as we know older voters are more likely to turn out and vote.”
1000 Manitobans were polled by telephone between September 14th and 23rd. 17 per cent of people polled were undecided that’s higher than normal said Brown.
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