EKOS poll for May 13, 2010. (EKOS)

Support for the Conservatives is up slightly and holding, a new EKOS poll suggests.

Asked how they would vote if an election were held "tomorrow," 33.6 per cent of those surveyed said they would vote for the Conservatives, compared with 27.1 per cent for the Liberals and 16.9 per cent for the NDP, according to the poll, whose results were released exclusively to CBC News.

The Green Party would receive 10.6 per cent of the vote and the Bloc Québécois 9.3 per cent.

In the previous week's poll, the Conservatives had 33.1 per cent support, the Liberals 26.1 per cent, the NDP 16 per cent, the Greens 11.5 per cent and the Bloc 10.2 per cent.

EKOS randomly surveyed 2,573 people by telephone between May 5 and May 11. The poll is considered accurate to within plus or minus 1.9 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

Voters in Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan continued to be most likely to vote Conservative, and support in Ontario continued to be split between the Liberals and Conservatives.

Men continued to be stronger supporters of the Conservative Party than women — 37.4 per cent compared with 29.7 per cent, the poll indicates. As in recent weeks, there was no notable gender gap among Liberal supporters. Support among men surveyed was at 26.0 per cent and support among women at 28.2 per cent.

A gender gap apparent in the poll last week, when support for the NDP was stronger among women surveyed than among men, stabilized in the most recent poll. Support for the NDP is mostly evenly split between men and women, the poll suggests.

However, a gap appears to have opened up this week in relation to the Green Party, with 12.4 per cent of women surveyed supporting the Greens and 8.7 per cent of men.

Consistent with past weeks, 51.0 per cent of Canadians polled said the country is moving in the right direction, while 39.1 per cent said it's moving in the wrong direction.

Conservative supporters, residents of Alberta and the Atlantic region, and men were most likely to agree the country is moving in the right direction.

There is a shift, however, in the perceived direction of the government, as opposed to the direction of the country. In the two previous polls, the number of Canadians who said the government was moving in the right direction was equal to the number who felt it was moving in the wrong direction.

However, the gap was wider this week, with 49.1 per cent of Canadians polled saying the government is moving in the wrong direction and 39.3 per cent contending it's moving in the right direction.

Those most likely to agree the government is moving in the right direction included Conservative supporters, people in Alberta and men.

Liberal supporters were about evenly divided on the direction of the country, though like other opposition party supporters, they were negative about the direction of the government.

Supporters of other opposition parties were sharply negative on both the direction of the country and the direction of the government.