(EKOS)

The Conservative Party retains a small lead in support over the Liberals, according to an EKOS poll.

If a federal election were held Thursday, 31.7 per cent of those surveyed would vote for the Conservatives, compared with 27.1 per cent for the Liberals and 16.3 per cent for the NDP, suggests the poll, whose results were released exclusively to CBC News.

The Green Party would receive 12.6 per cent of the vote and the Bloc Québécois just 9.5 per cent.

The results reverse a slight jump by the Liberals in last week's poll, when they trailed the Conservatives by just 2.4 percentage points, presumably because public reaction diminished over the controversy related to former junior cabinet minister Helena Guergis.

The results also create a virtually unprecedented situation: an electorate which has for 16 polls in a row stopped short of giving any party more than 33 percentage points in support.

As in previous polls, the Conservatives remain popular among respondents in Alberta (56.4 per cent) and Manitoba and Saskatchewan (43.8 per cent), as well as men (35.4 per cent) and Canadians aged 65 years or older (39.3 per cent).

Liberals, meanwhile, tend to find support among respondents in Ontario (34.6 per cent) and those with university-level education (34.5 per cent.)

Meanwhile, 46.6 per cent of respondents believe the government is moving in the wrong direction, which is consistent with previous polls. Just 41.4 per cent feel it is moving in the right direction.

EKOS surveyed 2,084 people by telephone between April 14 and April 20. The poll is considered accurate to within plus or minus 2.15 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.