(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - If the five Canadian federal party leaders ran in the same constituency, Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper would come out on top, according to a poll by Angus Reid Strategies. 32 per cent of respondents would support the Conservative leader in this scenario.

New Democratic Party (NDP) leader Jack Layton is second with 23 per cent, followed by Liberal leader Stéphane Dion with 15 per cent, Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe with nine per cent, and Green leader Elizabeth May with eight per cent.

Canadians renewed the House of Commons in January 2006. The Conservative party—led by Stephen Harper—received 36.3 per cent of the vote, and secured 124 seats in the 308-member lower house. Harper formed a minority administration after more than 12 years of government by the Liberal party.

Duceppe has been the leader of the Bloc Québécois since March 1997. Layton became the NDP’s leader in January 2003. In August 2006, Sierra Club of Canada head May was chosen as the new leader of the Greens. In December 2006, former environment minister Dion became the new leader of the Liberals.

On Sept. 12, Dion criticized Harper, saying, "While (Harper) was busy talking about building firewalls in the West, I was fighting to keep my country together. I do not need any lessons from Stephen Harper on fighting for the national unity of my country."

The next federal election in Canada is scheduled for Oct. 14.

Polling Data

Imagine that the five federal party leaders were running in your constituency. Who would you vote for?

Source: Angus Reid Strategies
Methodology: Online interviews with 1,007 Canadian adults, conducted on Sept. 8 and Sept. 9, 2008. Margin of error is 3.1 per cent.

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